Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2005, Page 57

COMMERCIAL AND SUBSISTANCE FlSHING IN VESTFIRÐIR
who targeted inshore fishing could do so
from their own farms. The only require-
ment for an inshore fishing base was a
suitable landing, anywhere on their farm-
land. This type of físhing was only fishing
for subsistence and did not target a certain
type of fish or of any particular size.
Cod was the main species tar-
geted from the offshore fishing sites and
comes mainly in two sizes in the waters
surrounding Iceland. The smaller variety
is found in the inshore físhing grounds
and the larger in the offshore físhing
grounds. The smaller cod was generally
not usable for the production of skreið
(i.e. stockfísh) and therefore was primari-
ly for domestic use. The larger cod was
more suited to be tumed into skreið and
was therefore targeted for both intemal
and extemal markets.
The importance of cod size was
probably greater in the period before
1700 as these periods produced different
fish products for export. In the early peri-
od dried físh products were the main
export items and in the latter period the
market turned to salted físh products. The
fonner was probably more difficult to
produce as it required a certain size of
cod and particular conditions needed to
be met, while the latter was not as vul-
nerable to outside conditions during its
production. This is extremely important
for understanding the role of marine
products in the Icelandic economy and
the development of the físhing industry
during the period from 1200-1800; as
well as the usage, size and placement of
físhing stations.
Another factor which plays a
role in choosing a location for these fish-
ing stations from the perspective of
seascape is that fishing in Iceland has
always been a hazardous occupation as
weather pattems are unpredictable and
can change without waming. Fishermen
in the past practiced their craft in small
open boats which were fragile and could
not endure the full fury of the North
Atlantic for long. For this reason, it was
especially important in deep sea físhing
for the fishermen to be able to reach the
offshore fishing grounds in as short time
as possible and to get back to base as
soon as possible.
Historical Classification of Fishing
Stations
In his seminal work on físhing in Iceland,
Lúðvík Kristjánsson (1983) categorizes
fishing sites into four main types: (i)
heimræði (home base), (ii) viðleguver
(shared base), (iii) útver (outlying base),
and (iv) blandað ver (mixed base). These
sites can be generally described in the
following manner: heimræði was the
place from which a fisher-farmer set out
during fishing trips and was used gener-
ally only by himself and his farmhands.
Viðleguver is a place where many farm-
ers from the region used a heimræði of a
particular farm during the físhing season.
Útver is a particular place on one's farm-
land, not close to the farm itself, where
físhermen set out on their físhing trips
during the físhing season. The main dif-
ference between the viðleguver and útver
seems to be that the latter is not in the
heimræði of a particular farm. Blandað
ver is a físhing station that seems to be a
mixture of the other three types of físhing
sites. The word verstöð also appears in
some of the sources; however, it seems to
be a more general term for a hunting sta-
tion, including físhing, with the main dif-
ference being that it was always used for
a site away from the farm. (Kristjánsson
1982, 32)
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