The Haaf Fishery Of The Shetland Islands

Shetland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries showed a degree of dependence on fishing for its life and economy that was unique in Britain. The manner in which the fishing was organised was a matter of controversy at the time and the controversy is still very much alive. It was generally recognised that, with a land base of limited fertility in a location surrounded by good fishing grounds, fish production had to be the main basis for the participation of the archipelago in a commercial economy. The commercial open boat fishery which was known as the 'haaf (deep sea) fishery for ling and cod dominated the life and economy of the Shetland Islands for most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is a major subject in folk memory and tradition. The haaf has become invested with an aura that has an heroic quality: probably the best known episodes relating to it are the various disasters involving not only the loss of boats and men but great feats of seamanship in weathering storms and making land in the face of severe gales and mountainous seas. It certainly involved very considerable hardship and danger: by the time the fishery was fully developed the boats could operate as far as 40 miles offshore. Weather and sea conditions at Shetland meant that this was an activity beset by cold, hardship and danger. The development and organisation of fishing in these centuries entailed what has been termed 'fishing tenures'. That is, participation in fishing became a condition of tenure of house and land; and for commercial fishing the fishermen were bound to single merchants who took their fish and supplied them with fishing gear and other requirements at prices they (the merchants) determined. In short, they were involved in a truck system. In the eighteenth century the landlords themselves were usually the merchants. In the following century, with an expanding trade, this gave way in large part to specialised merchants, whose position in relation to the landlords was usually that of tacksmen. However, for the fishermen there was a substantial element of continuity in their position in that fishing tenures and the truck system continued

Archaeology · Archipelago · Fishery · Fishing · Geography · Shetland · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies