Innovative recruitment strategies in the fisheries sector : Denmark

Denmark is one of the top 20 fishing nations of the world according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Employment in fisheries in Denmark was remarkably constant through most of the 20th century; in 1913 there were estimated to be 12,000 fishermen, and in 1982 11,000. However, from the early 1980s on, the sector was in crisis as a consequence of overexploitation, declining stocks and overcapacity. An ongoing decline in the fleet size, encouraged by the government and the EU via grants for decommissioning, lead to employment levels in 2001 of around 2,000 registered full-time fishermen according to Danish government statistics.