Riches in the sea
When Per meets a neighbor, he usually says, “Godt fiske!” instead of
“Good day!” Godtfiske means “good fishing” in Norwegian. And a good
catch means a good day for all Norwegian fishermen.
For thousands of years, Norwegians have made a living from the sea.
These fishermen are busiest from January to April. This is when there
are millions of cod around the Lofoten Islands.
Per and his neighbors haul in tons of cod with their nets. When they
return to the village, they clean and salt the cod and hang them on
racks to dry. Then the cod are sold in markets around the world.
When the fishing season is over, the fishermen find other work. Some go
to work in factories. Others are part-time farmers. A few work on
ferries that carry people across fiords.
Fish are not the only things in the sea. Alaskan fishermen also catch
crabs and shrimp. The Goajiro Indians in Colombia, South America, gather
salt from the sea. In Japan, workers pick seaweed that can be eaten. And
off the coasts of Florida, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, divers
bring up sponges from the ocean bottom.
All these workers, and many more, earn a living from riches in the sea.