Fishing boats that go after shrimp in Norway’s cold northern waters have been facing a shortage of the summer delicacy, while in southern Norway, the rekefisket (literally, shrimp fishing) is better than it has been in several years.
“Now the shrimp are coming back,” Alf Ulland of the Ulland seafood terminal at Hidra in Vest-Agder told state broadcaster NRK over the weekend. There’s been a lot of breeding in the Skagerrak, the waters between Norway and Denmark, and the catch is good in the North Sea as well, aided by some of the coldest local waters in 18 years.
In Northern Norway, though, many fishing boats are returning with a disappointing catch. “There’s never enough shrimp in the summer,” said Karin Olsen of Lyngen Reker in Troms, although she downplayed any critical shortage. “We’d always like more, but there’s no special lack of shrimp this year, just less than last year.”
From Hordaland and north to Troms, the shrimp industry isn’t able to meet demand. Some have blamed the chemicals used to fend off lice at fish farms, others a rise in the temperature of the Norwegian Sea.
Trawlers are returning “with all kinds of things other than shrimp,” said Bodil Holmen of Nordreker in Lurøy, Nordland County. Nordreker had to lay of six of its 14 employees because of the lack of shrimp this summer. Some boats in Bodø were also running low, but said they were able to meet demand.
newsinenglish.no staff