ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain.
Sec. Sustainable Supply Chain Management
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1401587
This article is part of the Research TopicUn-Graying of the Fleet: Young People and Their Futures in Search for Sustainable FisheriesView all 4 articles
Un-graying of the Norwegian Fishing Fleet: Turing the tide?
Provisionally accepted
- 1UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- 2NTNU, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway
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The “graying of the fleet” has been a persistent challenge in many fisheries worldwide, with an aging workforce and declining youth participation raising concerns about recruitment and knowledge transfer. However, since 2014-2015, Norway has experienced a reversal of this trend. This paper explores the phenomenon of "ungraying" in the Norwegian fishing fleet. Drawing on survey data and the Fisheries Employment System (FES) theoretical framework, the study finds that recruitment challenges are not widespread and current recruitment patterns reveal a strong reliance on social networks, though formal education is becoming more important. The Norwegian case illustrates how targeted policies, combined with evolving social and economic conditions, can address demographic challenges in fisheries. However, sustaining this trend requires adaptive strategies that balance the need for formal qualifications with mechanisms that maintain community-based engagement, ensuring the long-term vitality of coastal communities and the fisheries. This study contributes to the literature on fisheries recruitment and employment and introduces the Fisher Pathway Model (FPM, which is an analytical framework to capture the evolving FES and the interplay between primary and secondary socialization.
Keywords: fisheries recruitment, Coastal Employment System, Fisheries Employment System, Graying of the fleet, Fisheries employment
Received: 15 Mar 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sonvisen, Johnsen and Vik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Signe Annie Sonvisen, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
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