Iceland: Siltanews – News Desk
For seven generations, Andrea Ósk Hermóðsdóttir’s family have been fishing on the Laxá River in Aðaldalur. Iceland has a reputation as a world leader on feminism, but until recently women have not been able to work as guides to wild salmon fishing for visiting anglers – a job that has traditionally been the preserve of men.
The 21-year-old engineering student, her sister Alexandra Ósk, 16, and their friends Arndís Inga Árnadóttir, 18, and her sister Áslaug Anna, 15, are now the first generation of female guides on their river in northern Iceland, and among the very first female fishing guides in the country.
But after thousands of salmon escaped from an offshore fish farm in 2023, threatening the wild salmon population of multiple rivers, Andrea fears the job and the livelihood she has grown up with may not exist to pass on to her own children.
“To think this is something I might not be able to do my whole life is really not fun at all,” she said. “It’s really heartbreaking, not only for us but for nature itself.” The four young women are the subjects of an upcoming documentary, Strengur (or Tight Lines), directed by Gagga Jónsdóttir. The film, shot in part during the salmon escape, explores the young women’s relationships with one another, their fathers, fishing and its future.
Salmon that escape from farms threaten wild salmon in multiple ways. They can carry disease and parasites, especially sea lice, and when interbreeding occurs, the offspring mature faster and younger, undermining the ability of the species to reproduce in nature.
The women continue to catch sea-farmed salmon that have almost certainly bred with the wild Atlantic salmon. That open-pen sea farms have not been banned is staggering to Andrea. “I really don’t understand how the Icelandic government is not doing more about this – and also, how are we not learning from Norway?” she said.
Last year 33 rivers were closed to fishers in Norway after a collapse in the wild salmon population. “A lot of Norwegian rivers have been ruined by farmed salmon. How can we have that evidence and still not do anything about this?” Andrea said.