It virtually lifted Iceland out of poverty, providing thousands of jobs for men and women in Siglufjordur on the country’s northern coast, just a little south of the Arctic Circle.
Siglufjordur is now home to Iceland’s largest maritime museum, the Herring Era Museum. Its sole focus is highlighting the impact of the herring fishing industry, which took off when Norwegian entrepreneurs set up processing plants in the town from 1911, followed soon afterwards by Icelandic businessmen.
The Atlantic herring was known as the “silver of the sea” and became a huge food resource in the early 1900s. The fish can grow up to about 50cm. Herrings feed on krill and other smaller fish. Their stocks boomed at the turn of 20th century, partly due to its habit of congregating in dense schools. These masses of fish made it difficult for larger predators in the food chain to eat them.
Salted herring, fish meal and fish oil became in high demand in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Barrels of salted fish were exported to northern Europe as a human food source. The meal was sold as animal stockfeed and the oil was destined as a substrate in industrial manufacturing and soap making.
The herring industry provided a lot of jobs in Siglufjordur during the fishing season. Women and men came from all over Iceland to work in the processing sheds. Until 1900, Siglufjordur was a small village of a few hundred people. At the industry’s peak, the town had a population of about 3000.
By 1938, it was Iceland’s most valuable export. At its peak in 1966, fish meal and oil accounted for 31 per cent of Iceland’s GDP. Just three years later, overfishing by Iceland, Norway and Russia resulted in Atlantic herring stocks crashing and Siglufjordur and other towns with similar fish plants were struggling. It took nearly 50 years of regulation for herring stocks to recover.
Other towns followed and, by the industry’s peak in 1966, there were 45 herring processing plants across Iceland, producing 16,000 tonnes. After herring stocks crashed, some plants switched to capelin for fishmeal and oil production but many factories closed.
The Herring Era Museum, housed in five former processing plant buildings totalling 2500 square metres, showcases the once burgeoning industry. One building houses a restaurant serving up herring delicacies and other dishes. Other buildings tell the history of the industry.
The largest building is designed as a port, with access to an original herring fishing boat and smaller vessels. Visitors get a fascinating insight into the herring industry.
In 2004, the Herring Era Museum won the European Museum Award for best new museum of industry and technology. It had about 8000 visitors that year, but now attracts more than 35,000 visitors annually. The museum’s collections conservator, Daniel Petur Danielsson, said they were currently developing an exhibition focusing on the role of women in the industry. About 40 former female employees have already been interviewed, telling their stories.
Daniel and the museum’s director, Anita Elefsen, are attending the International Congress of Maritime Museums gathering in Sydney in mid-September. Seaworks Foundation executive officer Glenn Jones will also be attending the congress.
