Preservation of Sámi salmon fishing

The Sámi Parliament and the Ministry of Climate and Environment would like input on following points.

1. What should be done to preserve, strengthen, and continue Sámi salmon fishing culture, including:

• Traditional practices of salmon fishing, including technical skills, methods, traditions, customs, and teaching methods
• Árbediehtu (traditional knowledge) about salmon, salmon fishing, and salmon habitats?
• Sámi-language terms related to salmon and salmon fishing, including place names and descriptions of nature and seasons?
• Spiritual practices related to salmon fishing, such as respect for and use of sacred sites?
• Local history, legends, oral storytelling traditions, and joik related to salmon fishing?
• Duodji (Sámi handicrafts and applied arts), food traditions, and other cultural practices and livelihoods stemming from salmon fishing?
• Other values, practices, or traditions as part of birgen and birgejupmi (survival, resilience, mastery) in areas with Sámi salmon fishing, past and present?

2. What should be done to mitigate the negative consequences of the decline in salmon fishing on people’s economic situation, social life, networks, and desire to live in Sámi areas where salmon fishing has been the basis for settlement?”

You can read more about the hearing here (in Norwegian).

Our comments on this consultation regarding the preservation of Sámi salmon fishing

Overall, we believe that salmon fishing in rivers, fjords, and the sea is closely interconnected and should be managed collectively under the Marine Resources Act. The updated Marine Resources Act includes a dedicated Fjord Fisheries Board to safeguard Sámi traditional knowledge. The selection and composition of this board should reflect such an expansion of the Marine Resources Act. We note that the board must have a secretariat and sufficient resources to fulfill its mandate. Alternatively, Section 3 of the Salmon and Inland Fisheries Act of 1992 should be amended from its current non-binding emphasis on Sámi interests, where the law states that if decisions under this law directly affect Sámi interests, due consideration should be given to the natural foundation for Sámi culture within the framework of the provisions authorising the decision. This is very vague and non-binding and does not give traditional knowledge the capacity and management power to be valued on par with scientific knowledge. Therefore, the Salmon Fisheries Act should include a section on a dedicated Sámi Salmon Fisheries Board, similar to the Fjord Fisheries Board in the Marine Resources Act. These two boards must meet regularly to share and discuss common issues. The Salmon Fisheries Board must be provided with sufficient administrative resources and capacity so that management can be based on genuine “two-eyed seeing” perspectives, which means that both scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge must be emphasised in management.

Our recommendations

We recommend opening for pink salmon fishing in the sea from 2027, preferably using traditional nets that have proven to have low damage potential. These tools must be made available to fjord fishers at no additional cost.

It is necessary to facilitate and remove obstacles for combined livelihoods, as such combined forms of livelihoods are sustainable.

The current arrangement for youth fishing must also apply to salmon fishing. It is important that culture-based salmon fishing is passed on to children and young people.

Sámi traditional knowledge also includes balanced and sustainable hunting and harvesting of salmon predators, such as seals, otters, ducks, pike, and grayling. Such knowledge must be considered in salmon management.

It has been documented that escapes, salmon lice, and toxic runoff from aquaculture are a serious threat to salmon stocks. Measures must be implemented to eliminate this threat.

Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have developed their own declaration on salmon fishing (the Karasjok Declaration). This declaration must form the basis for future salmon management.

The Sámi Parliament and Sámi fishing organisations must be ensured resources to participate in experience and knowledge exchange with international organisations, including Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Low Impact Fisheries of Europe (LIFE), and International Collective Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), as well as Indigenous organisations such as the Tikahtnu Fishery Commission, Tamamta, and Indigenous perspectives in NOAA Fisheries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we emphasise that the preservation of Indigenous culture and traditions can only be ensured through adherence to, i.e., proper management of, rights. Such rights will benefit everyone, not just Indigenous peoples where salmon fishing is a long-standing and central part of birgejupmi. Salmon in the Arctic is threatened by modern American, Canadian, and European fisheries management through bottom trawling, sea-based aquaculture facilities, and flawed quota management, e.g., prioritising tourist fishing over the original salmon fishing rights from time immemorial. The current lack of such rights is well described in the Smith Committee’s 2008:5 report on the Right to Fish in the Sea off Finnmark. The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls for the Smith Committee’s report to be addressed with the aim of enshrining the rights of the Sámi people in law. A recent knowledge summary by two researchers at UiT, Dahl and Enyew (2025), on Coastal Sámi Rights to Fish in the Traditional Sámi Settlement Area: A Compilation of the Existing Knowledge Base (UiT Report) reaches similar conclusions.