Scientist chat

Interviewing Sten Siikavuopio, a senior scientist at Nofima, about just about everything regarding the king crabs and the sea urchins invading the Norwegian coast.

About the king crabs

The king crabs were introduced to the Barents Sea outside in the early 60s and were first discovered in 1976 in Norwegian waters. Today the stock has spread westwards all the way to Hammerfest. It is found further south and west that Hammerfest, but that is mostly singular individuals. In the area from Hammerfest and eastwards along the Kola Peninsula, the king crabs have entered as good as every fjord and are also going quite far north.

For a long time the catching of king crab was forbidden in the Barents Sea, but from 2002 the government lanced catching quotas. Today, the Norwegian state has decided use two different strategies in regarding the king crabs. They are doing destruction fishery south and west of Hammerfest to try to extinct the stock. On the eastern side of Hammerfest, on the other hand, they are executing commercial fishery and ustainable management of the stock. “As a scientist, this strategy of “yes please, both” is quite difficult to understand. How they are planning on stopping the crabs from crossing the invisible line, is beyond my understanding.” When the larvae are hatched, they are floating around in the water for about a month. This means that they can easily spread very far, and even follow boats to the southern coasts. And even though the king crabs likes it better in cold waters of about 4 degrees, they can survive in up to 20 degrees for shorter periods.

Can you breed the king crabs?

Nofima has been doing research on that since 1994, and we have found that it is very difficult to do breeding of kin crab in a profitable manner. That is because it takes too long to go from the starting product to the sellable, profitable product. After the crabs have reached 700 – 800 grams, they only change their shells once a year and following, the growth isn’t very big. Most producers want the crabs to be about 6 kilos when they sell them, and that takes from 7 to 10 years when breeding from larvae. But in the latest years, an aquaculture based on catching has started growing, and this has proved to be very fruitful. They catch the wild crabs and then keep them in captivity and feed them for 2 – 6 months until they are fat enough to be sold.

Can you catch the king crabs all year round?

Yes, you can, but the season is primarily in the autumn from October to January, after the crabs have eaten well during the summer. The autumn is the season for the commercial fishery. The worst time is in February – March when it is changing its shell. The new big thing in king crab fishery is that you can now catch both male and female crabs. This means that we can sell king crab roe which is a very luxurious product similar to Russian caviar. If we get an export of this roe up and running, we will have a good potential of great profitability.

The sea urchins

Yes, the sea urchins have a very special history. Did you know that there are over 400 species of them in the world, and that we harvest only 10 of these species? The little green one, droebachiensis, is the most popular one. This is also the type of sea urchin that we have the most of on the Norwegian coast.

How is the market for sea urchin now?

The top was reached in 1995 when we had the all time largest catching statistics of 125 000 tons sold in the world. But after 1995 the stocks have been overpopulated and are decreasing and diminishing in size. Most of the sea urchins are caught from growing wild, and exported alive. Much of the sea urchins go to France and Europe, but Japan is the absolute largest consumer. They eat 90 % of the world production of sea urchins! The French are eating the sea urchins raw, served directly on the plate, but in Japan they have lots of different producers and are refining the sea urchins in to over 40 different products. In Europe also you can find particular use of the sea urchins; in Malta they are making pasta sauce of them, and in other parts of the region, they make for instance dessert soufflé.

So can Norway join this market?

Yes, well we are in the both lucky an unfortunate position that our coast is over-populated of sea urchins. This is in fact an ecological disaster! A surface on the size of Senja, Norways biggest island, has been eaten down. Actually, it is my opinion that the Norwegian government should rather have given the 4 billion NOKs they are giving to the Amazon rainforest, to the kelp forests of our northern coast. The sea urchins have eaten 50 000 tons of harvestable bio mass that we could have eaten. The loss of the kelp also makes the fishes go away and the fjords are slowly dying if nothing is done.

How is the process of breeding sea urchins?

It is not very common to breed the urchins from larvae because it takes too long. The better way is to catch them from the wild and then breed them up to a suitable size – like with the king crabs. The sea urchins grow evidently smaller and have less roe in them when there are too many of them. The down side of producing sea urchins this way is that to catch them you have to dive down and pick them up. However, we are actually working on developing a miniature submarine to increase the efficiency of this catching process. In Norway there are only two companies that are breeding sea urchins from roe at the moment, but more and more producers based on catching. In Maine, USA and in Japan they put out several million sea urchins every year, and there this is a million dollar industry.

How are they transported? Isn’t there a limit of only 3 days after packing?

No, that is completely nonsense! They can very well be eaten up to 10 days after packing. You know, this is animals without a heart and brain, they can manage perfectly fine over a longer period of time. But I think that in a long term perspective, all export of sea urchin from Norway will be refined. Have you seen the commercial for Nora jam? The one with all the ladies making jam? Well, in Chile they are packing sea urchins like that. I went to a factory where there were 400 ladies packing! They have over 4 000 licences for catching sea urchins over there. In Norway it’s not even regulated yet. By the way, the king crabs can also be sent alive. They are for instance sending living crabs to Switzerland. And a company in Lakselv is going to send 12 tons of king crab to Moscow this year.

Are you working on any new form for breeding at the moment?

Well, you know that the king crab and the sea urchin are the most luxurious products, but we are now working on a breeding installation in Kirkenes, where they will breed char. This is a type of fish that needs to be bred in a closed land based plant. It is actually getting half of its financing from the Russians who have great interest in the fishing industry. They are a country of much resource when it comes to lakes and fresh water, but not on sea water. They have a great potential in developing breeding installations for fresh fish over there. Pinro and Veniro, the biggest companies in the Russian science industry, are working on many subjects. In Linehammeri (a closed sub-marine base near the Norwegian border) they are doing breeding of Norwegian salmon. Unfortunately, the possibilities of sea farming on the coast of the Kola Peninsula are very limited due to the many many military zones. In the White Sea, on the other hand, I know they have had successful experiences on net breeding in summertime.

Any last words?

Yes, you should check out the fishing tourism that is up and coming. It is a million dollar industry in Alaska. It is a kind of adventure tourism where they set out fish for guaranteeing catch and even provide a very own chef for the tourists to learn how to cook their fish! We are doing a project on this in Kirkenes as an offer for the tourist in the ice hotel. It will be very nice.

INTEGRATE

integrated open sea water aquaculture, technology for sustainable culture of high productive areas

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is a practice in which the by-products (wastes) from one species are recycled to become inputs (fertilizers, food) for another.
Fed aquaculture (e.g. fish, shrimp) is combined with inorganic extractive (seaweed) and organic extractive (for example shellfish like mussels, or sea urchins) aquaculture to create balanced systems for environmental sustainability , economic stability -product diversification and risk reduction- and social acceptability -better management practices-.

Several integrated aquaculture projects have been started up the last few years, in different regions of the world (Japan, Canada, Chile, UK, Ireland, South Africa)

In Norway, Sintef, in association with NTNU are currently working on this sustainable way of sea farming.

http://www.sintef.no/Projectweb/INTEGRATE---/

Seafood from Finnmark to Russia

The Norwegian Seafood Company (Havbrukskompaniet) has joined a large project in Finnmark. The project is called “Seafood from Finnmark to Russia.” Their vision is to make the network of collaborating companies in Finnmark, leading in the market of fresh seafood export from Norway to Russia within 2011. The projects aim is an increased development of profitability through the export of a broad selection of seafood products via Troika Seafood AS in Kirkenes, to importers in Russia. The Russian importers serve the HORECA market and the retail market (supermarkets and special stores) in the biggest cities, together with processing companies.

Potential for added value on the coast of Norway

Norway in the future…

Some day in the future, in not too long, the oil adventure of Norway will be history. The platforms will stop pumping up money to the welfare state, and Norway will need new industries. New industries that creates jobs and that sends money to the pocket…

It takes time to make new main sources of income up and running, and that is why Norway should start looking around for alternative activities already. A possible new source of income is sea farming, in many ways both a new and an old industry for the Norwegians. Old in the sense of it being an activity that kept big parts of the population alive through history. New in the sense that it for many years has for many years been considered a low status profession to do sea farming. It is not until the latest years, with the great export of salmon, that sea farming is again associated with money and status.

The politicians decided in the white paper St.meld.39 (1998-1999), Forskning ved et tidsskille, that the national focus of research should be on areas where Norway has distinct qualifications for success. There was appointed four such areas, whereas marine research was one of these areas. Within sea farming Norway has several obvious and natural advantages, and it is pointed out that this is one of the possibilities for the future [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

Norway has several natural advantages regarding sea farming. The coastal line of Norway is very long, and by the very fact of the economical zone being sat to 2000 km, this represents an enormous area in which one could do sea farming. The coast is suitably protected with many islands and fjords, and there is a large entry of nutrient-rich sea water. Large parts of the coast are not polluted, and there are especially favourable conditions northwards from Møre og Romsdal. The cold water keeps poisonous algae away, and it contributes to raise the quality of the sea food [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

There is such a high amount of money in sea farming that the salmon breeding in the areas around Hitra and Frøya now stands for almost 40 % of the added value of all of Trøndelag [Knut Sundet]. However, sea farming in Trøndelag also invites to many other possibilities besides salmon breeding. It has been said that a well worked out Norwegian aquaculture has an equally big potential in added value as the oil industry [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk].

It all comes down to seeing the potential that sea farming in Norway represents. Lee Chul-ho, better known as the noodle king Mr. Lee, has just announced that he wishes to start a king snail factory on the island of Frøya. According to him there is swarming with king snails along the coast of Trøndelag, and he wants to sell these to Japan, where the snails are a highly sought after delicacy [NRK, 31.03.05]. In Norway, the king snails have a low status, and as a consequence, its potential as an income has not been seen. The sea urchin has suffered under the same conditions, but there are now several enthusiasts that believes in the sea urchin as a sellable sea food product, and that has tried to make an industry out of it.

Åfjord municipality has tried to become the mussel municipality number one in Norway, the mainly blue mussels. In the early 90s they were really big in this kind of breeding, but due to tragic circumstances and a collapse in the mussel market, they had a major set back. They are now on the way back, heading for new altitudes. The breeding conditions in the area are optimal and this is an advantage the municipality should take advantage of.

It is important for the distinctive characteristics of Norway that the scattered population is kept, also along the coast.

For the outskirts such as Åfjord, it is of great significance that there are a sufficient amount of jobs, both to prevent people moving out, and to stand out as an attractive place to live that invites for people to move to. Jobs require a form of added value and for municipalities along the coast, different forms of sea farming is such a valuable possibilities.

Outskirts can experience success by creating a strong environment for added value. This will to a certain amount, lead the focus from urban areas to the relevant area. According to the white paper St.meld. nr.34 (2000-2001), Om distrikts- og regionalpolitikken, a successful environment for added value is characterized by three main factors;

• There are relatively many companies within certain industries inside limited geographical areas. This leads to a strong local competence.
• The companies are forming local networks and are collaborating on innovation, both horizontally and vertically in the value chain.
• There are contact and dialog with regional knowledge organisations.
  

If the three factors of success are used as a point of departure, we can see what Åfjord did wrong in the 90s and what they should do now. Early in the nineties there was given 23 licences to do mussel breeding, and all of these were divided on many small companies. As the interest spread out in the municipality, one started to demand that the companies delivered their mussels to the already established wrapping factory. This led to tendencies of collaboration and networks. There was however no contact with regional knowledge organisations [Knut Sundet].

There are great expectations of the niche production of rather luxurious sea food will be the future of the Norwegian aquaculture. There will always be variations in the market and it is important with a flexible production as for instance to be able to use the same factory for several kinds of sea food [Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk]. In Åfjords case, it will be strategically smart to go for production and eventually refinement of multiple types of sea food. They have already tried the breeding of mussels, and there have earlier been attempts of diving for sea urchins for exporting to Japan. The local environments are already big in salmon breeding, and Åfjord should rather try to complement them than to compete against them. This they can do my producing several types of mussels, sea urchins, different snails and other types of sea food. To accomplish even more added value, they should further on try to refine some of these products [Strategi for blåskjellnæringen for sjømatklynge nord]. This will contribute to create interesting job possibilities.

It is said of the future that quality will be a key word. There will be more and more demands of documentation of high quality, and as a follow up on this there will probably come some rules of certification for sea food. An eco-label is such a certificate. The eco-labeled sea food means that the food is given a life-cycle assessment that says something about the environmental friendliness of the product from raw material to waste management. Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent eco-label that guaranties that the sea food is from a viable sea farm [WWF ”sjømat med god samvittighet”]. Eco-labelled sea food is as of today not to find in Norway, but there is a growing demand of this in Europe. Ac eco-label on the sea food would function as a quality stamp.

Translated article

source unknown

Sources:

Arbeidsgruppen for havbruk, Det Kongelige Norske Videnskabers Selskab og Norges Tekniske Vitenskapsakademi, Norges muligheter for verdiskapning innen havbruk, 1999

Dagbladet, http://www.dagbladet.no/pds/1999/03/30/161797.html

Knut Sundet, leder av Åfjord Næringsforening

NRK P3, nyhetssending 31.03.05

Stiftelsen Norsk Skjellforum, Strategi for blåskjellnæringen for sjømatklynge nord

St.meld. nr. 34 (2000-2001), Om distrikts- og regionalpolitikken

St.meld.39 (1998-1999), Forskning ved et tidsskille

WWF-Norge, Sjømat med god samvittighet En oppsummering av miljømerker og miljø-styringssystemer for fiskerier og havbruksprodukter, 2002

[http://www.dagbladet.no/pds/1999/03/30/161797.html

Mr. Lee sees potential in "alternative" Norwegian sea food.

Mr.Lee sells "non-food" to Koreans
Text: Christian Thorkildsen, Ida Aamodt-Hansen, Aftenposten
Photo: Svein Erik Furulund
Published: 06.08.08 21:04, Updated: 07.08.08 14:51

With a Korean TV-team following him, the "Noodle king" Mr. Lee is working on selling Norwegian seagull-food to the Korean people.
- The water temperature in the Tromsø-area is very suitable, so we will grow a lot of sea weed and sea tangle in Norway. And sea cucumber, says Chui Hoi Lee.

- Norwegians throw away too much good sea food. Two thirds of all the Norwegian fish being fished is thrown out again. I want to try to send that fish to the people in the East, because we love that kind of food! King snails, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, crabs and scampi that Norwegians don't appreciate too much - is very much appreciated in the East, says Chul Hol Lee, better known in Norway as Mr. Lee.

- The fishermen can get their money back, because I have lots of buyers "down there", he adds.

He has a clear recommendation for the Norwegian Seafood business:
- They can forget about the EU. Two thirds of the world's population lives in the East, so it's a much bigger market there, says Lee.

INSPIRES
A team from the South Korean TV-channel MBC follows Lee closely these days, all over Norway.

- They are going to make a documentary on me, on my stay in Norway, the 50 years I have been here, what I have learned and so on. They have followed me to the museum, library and bookshop to see what has been written about me. It's tiresome. But also fun that people appreciate what I have done until now, says Lee.

TV host Grace Choi from MBC says Lee inspires Koreans in may ways.
- When he came here he had nothing. He didn't speak Norwegian, not even English. But look at him now. It's amazing! she says.

Sea Urchin - another future source of income?

Once upon a time there was a king crab...

The king crabs - a blessing?

The king crab was introduced to the Barents Sea by Russian scientists in the 1960s. The crabs are spread into large areas of both the Russian and Norwegian waters and are now considered to be a permanent habitant of the Barents Sea. As an omnivore with few natural enemies it was for many years considered a great threat to the Barents way of life – both for man and under water species. But the king crab is also a sought-after delicacy that could bring hope for the future of many small villages in the high north.

The king crabs were originally found in the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. In 1961, the Russian marine biologist Jurij I. Orlov succeeded in bringing live female crabs full of spawn, from the Japan Sea to Murmansk. Orlov made 30 trips like this over a period of 8 years, from 1961 to 1969, in which he put out 2 000 female crabs, 1 000 male crabs and 10 000 crab brood. And also 1, 5 million crab larvae. The last time a relocation of crabs like this was made, was in 1977 – 78 where they put out 1200 adult king crabs in the Kola fjord. These crabs became with that the ancestors of the king crabs we see today in the Barents Sea.

Ever since 1932 the Soviet Union had been trying to relocate the king crabs. The project was a part of many of which the goal was to give more food to the people – a prestige project of Stalin. Orlov gained fame and recognition in Soviet for his work, and got among others the order “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

In the 40 years from the 1960s to 2000, the king crab had spread westward along all of the coast of Finnmark, where it is now a common sight. Some singletons have been spotted as far as in the Lofoten Islands, but this is likely to be individuals who got “a hand” on the way. Eastwards, the crabs are now found along the entire coast of Kola, into the White Sea and up north to Gåsbanken. On the Norwegian side it has also been seen far offshore; in 2003 it was found 100 nautical miles north of the North Cape. The previous registration was 12 nautical miles north of North Cape. This means that the king crab had moved a great distance in short time. King crab larvae lives 2-3 months in free water and can be transported over long distances with the ocean currents, and it is not unreasonable to assume that the king crabs can spread all the way up to Svalbard in a long term perspective. It is unknown how far west and south it will spread along the Norwegian coast, but Russian scientists believes that the crab has reached its most easterly border in the Barents Sea. Westwards on the other hand, the analysis suggests that the crabs will expand all the way to Gibraltar.

Until 2002, commercial red king crab fishery was prohibited in the Barents Sea. The reason of this was that during the negotiations on the grey zone in the late 1970s, Norway accepted the introduction of a total prohibition against this kind of fishery. This was after the request of the Soviet authorities who wanted the population to grow up big and viable. Now, the king crabs can be caught on commercial proposes east of 26° Ø and the quotas are regularly going up.

The production of king crabs is a prosperous industry in the Barents region, and more and more ancient fishing villages are expanding their production facilities so that they are able to include this kind of production. The only downside is that the production period is very short and hectic – only 6 weeks from September to mid- October. The Norwegian department of Fishery writes in a rapport on the king crab, that there is a significant potential for industrial and commercial development of the production of king crabs and that this would contribute to strengthen the fisheries in the gain ground of the crabs. They also encourage research and development on the area to insecure added values.

Japan and USA are the biggest markets for king crab and they are base don traditional products, sales outlets and fixed procedures for price stipulation. The experiences made in the period of research catch, indicates that the Norwegian king crab can reach new markets and offer both new and traditional products for “attractive prices.” In 2002, when catching of king crabs became regulated in Norway, they also made a tourist quota. This received a lot of attention, and is a growing business in Finnmark; Varanger Opplevelser calls the king crab catching a “very salable and sexy product – all year around.“

In the small coastal village of Bugøynes in Finnmark, Norway, we can find one of the suppliers of the king crabs. Bugøynes is located close to the Varangerfjord in the Varanger Peninsula – the key region for Red King Crab of Norway, and is today a leading king crab manufacturer in Norway. From these you can get everything from a crabs shoulder to an entire crab precooked. There are also similar production companies in Kjøllefjord and Berlevåg further west in Finnmark. These companies are exporting crab to markets in Europe, Asia and the USA, but their high season is in December when it’s the “Christmas sales” to Japan. So as he said, Jurij I. Orlov, the king crabs might just become a real blessing for the people of the Norwegian coast.

Sources:

Fiskeri- og Havbruksnæringens landforening

Havforskningsinstituttet

Fiskeri- og kystdepartementet

Bugøynes Kongekrabbe AS

Murmansk Oblast survey

Bugøynes style dressing for king crab

9 pers:

6 dl rømme
ca 1,5 pk ækte majones
1 glass pickles i biter
4 selleristenger i biter
en desj hakket hvitløk
salt
pepper
dill (vi brukte tørket)
saften fra en halv lime

Mmmmmmm!

Feel free to translate it to English. Or French. Or Czech.
Feel free to remove it.
Maybe it should be on facebook instead?

The Northern Maritime Corridor homepage

A Russian Northern Maritime Corridor to the EU

The Barents Observer writes today about the Northern Maritime Corridor project. The regional authorities in Northwest Russia are looking at this project as an important factor in their transport connections with Europe. This comes at the same time as the European Union seeks to move more transport off the roads and onto the sea.

Fish in the Barents sea

Dagbladet has made an article about how fish are migrating due to the warming of the sea along the Norwegian coast

the Barents Team

Ingunn Danielsen Lindbach, Synnøve Sæle, Matteo Gregori, Clémence Lepelletier, Ragnhild Førde, [Katerina] Katka Margoldova, Hilde Bøkestad, Magnus Jørgensen, Rune Stangeland, Kari Dalland

Hamningberg houses

The Barents non-identity

Barents region is a land of contrasts, this is a land shared beetween day and night, east and west. Two differents cultures, two differents ways of living, with their own economic/ diplomatic/ educationnal/.../ system are facing.
On the left hand Europe (Nor.Swe.Fin.) has a steady evolution for several centuries, the capitalism functioning is deeply included into the societies.
On the right hand Russia, weaken after the end of the communism, is now establishing itself as one of the first world power.

What does 'identity' mean for a such contrasted region?
We can speak of 'community' when we deal with the Sami people, we can find 'similarities' beetween the lifestyles, or cultural 'resemblances', but it's impossible to sum up the Barents region under one idea, one 'identity'.

The strength of this territory may reside in such opposition, what if the left hand joined the right hand?

We sould keep in mind the words of Johannes Pedersen from NORD "Wealth in this new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimisation. Wealth is not gained by perfecting the known, but by impefectly seeking the unknown."

Competition: New flag for the Barents Region

We're on facebook!

We have now created our own account on Facebook.

Follow this link and check it out! (- or simply search for "The Barents Project")

Honningsvåg

Common identity, does it exist?

Is there a common Barents identity? Will it ever arise? Do we wish for it?
The different countries have some of the same problems and qualities. Can these factors be used when we as outsiders define the Barents Identity?

Through the years the people in this region have struggled a lot. Both when it comes to man against nature and man against man. Today the struggle has shifted to man against economy. A growing problem is the lack of jobs. Young people are forced to move to the south to get a job. The region is in desperate need of new and innovating jobs. The problems grow even more when we look to the east. The poverty rate of Russia has improved a great deal. But the differences are still huge. The health system is in desperate need of upgrade. Will the relationship in the Barents Region help this development? Can we cover up the big gap between Russia and the other countries? Can we in the welfare state of Norway share the same identity as a beagger in Russia? Are the common qualities/problems strong enough to bulid a new region upon?

A shift in industry and resources
The discovery of natural resources has led to a great focus of the north.Oil,gas,wood, fish and minerals can bring the region closer together in terms of exchanging knowledge and technology. But will the outcome of the resources affect the ones who really needs it? Will the life quality be better for the whole region or will some small groups of people get all the benefits? It is important that a strong country as Norway set the standard at an early time.

It is difficult to grasp the common identity at this point. Writing this task leads to many unanswered questions. But we are on our way!

Work in progress

Writing something about the Barents Identity...what an hard task considering the fact that this region is made of differences and contrasts: 4 different countries, more than 4 different languages, different currencies, indigenous people, differences in the standard of living between Scandinavian countries and Russia. Does the Barents Region have a common identity? What is this identity? Can a Regional identity be made of gaps and contrasts?
They’re indeed a lot of tensions in this area, due to the fact that this region is a border region and because of all those differences (political, economical, cultural), but not only: tensions between the local and the global, tensions between the east and the west part of the region, tensions between tradition and modernity.
The four countries that make the Barents region have some features of development in common: history, sparse population, large areas, ethnic minorities, high amount of natural resources and the harsh and cold climate. Those common factors are a way to see the region as a strong entity with a possible future.
People who’re living there are for most of them proud of their past and cultural background. They all share the same strong relation with nature, wherever they live in the region.
But from now it seems that people who’re living in the Barents region are expecting something new, they’re expecting future. The difficulties people had to pass through the past years (with the decreasing of fisheries, the fall of the soviet union…) made them maybe stronger to face the future. All those differences and gaps are making the Barents Region as it is now.
How local people live with those differences? Would it be possible to reduce the economical gap between the east and the west part of the region in the future to hope a closest collaboration between the Scandinavian countries and Russia? Is it possible to make people stay for a long time in this area (and not only a place to work but a place to live!) and make it an attractive region in the future?
I don’t think that we can already speak about a Barents Identity yet… It asks for a lot of time to talk about identity for a region... maybe in a few years, who knows!
One thing is at least sure… the reindeers keep on crossing the borders!

It's to early to search for identity

As far as I know, Barents region was established by Norwegians to help to develop new business contacts or to make the existing ones easier.
In the past, there weren't any mutual relations throughout the whole area. Sure there were some, but allways only between some parts of the region. It never worked as one entity. For illustration - what could have in common medieval Swedish farmer and fisher from Archangelsk oblast? They could watch the same nothern lights...
Now you can find some aspects or qualities that people in this region share, but there's no need to call them identity. For me Identity is something I can't describe very precisely, it's more some kind of feeling than an observable quality.
I think, that Idenity, if it's not formed on the bases of nationality (Sami, for ex.), needs some time to develop. And time in this case means centuries, during which the region is working together. Therefore 15 years is not enough.

Barents identity on the move

Is there such a thing as a common identity for the Barents region? Well, after exploring the region myself for 5 days by the coastal steamer Hurtigruten and 12 days by car, I can at least conclude with one thing. The Barents identity certainly has to include a lot of driving. Mobility has always been of cruicial importance for people in this area, even before the term ”Barents region” itself was constructed: Pomor trade along the Russian and Norwegian coastline. Sami reindeer herding, stretching from Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia. Fisheries along the coast and rivers. The people of this region have always been migrant workers, following their herd of either fish or reindeer through the changing seasons and settling down wherever the resources were found.

But as time went by, fishing boats grew bigger and processing industries were moved to other and more profitable places. Without a reliable source of income people were forced to move. Today the discovery of new resources such as gas and oil in the Barents sea give new hope to the people in the region and politicians dream of a prosperous future and a wealth new workers. The taxi driver we met in Hammerfest, home of ”Snøhvit” (Snow White) – the first offshore development in the Barents Sea, was somewhat more reserved: ”Well, at first we expected a lot of new people. But the people who come to work at the platform are merely commuters. They move back when their job is over.”

The main issue for the Barents region may be this: How can one adapt the Barents identity of mobility into a will to stay? Or does the future of the Barents region include a comeback of the migrant workers from the old days?

The babushka

Trying to find a common Barents identity is not an easy task. And this babushka from Murmansk might not be the perfect symbol of this identity, but she is a part of it. She represents the women in Russia, whose husbands have died and left them with nothing. She is old without a job, and with no pension. She is one of the thousands of elderly women in Russia who has no choice but to beg for money in order to survive. In that sense she represents one of the aspects in the Russian politics which does not work. She represents the gap between the poor and the rich. In a way she also represents the gap between Russia and the three Scandinavian countries in the region. Will these four countries ever become equal in terms of social welfare?

In Norway the poverty rate is next to nothing. After the fall of USSR, Russia went through a major economical crisis and the number of people living in poverty increased from 1.5% to somewhere between 39 and 49% within a couple of years. Today the situation has improved and in 2007 14% lived below the poverty line. Since the financial crisis in 1998, Russia has had a 7% annual economical growth. The personal income has increased by 12% the last five years. But these numbers might lie. Most of the wealth in Russia is in the hands of the oligarchs, while the rest of the population can’t see the fruits of a country in growth.

How will the Barents Cooperation affect the lives of ordinary people in the region? Who will benefit from the Barents Cooperation? Welfare and social security could be the key to communicate the idea of the Barents Cooperation to people outside the political establishment.

The babushka illustrates the vast distance between Norway and Russia, not only geographically, but also culturally and economically. Is it possible or even desirable to speak about a common identity in spite of all the differences?

Traveling Through some of the Barents Region

Regional identity?

The Barents region is a region of different nationalities, different ethnical groups, different languages and different cultures. Historically, it contains the border between east and west, communism and capitalism, and between the pore and the rich.

The Barents region and the areas of the high north is something we hear more and more about. The politicians and the money makers have big big plans for the region. But is this really a region a part from on the map? Is there a common identity? Some people say that identity is merely a construction. So of what is the identity of the Barents people constructed? Is there a common Barents identity?

The identity of the Barents region consists of different levels. On one level there is the common culture and language of the Sámi. This ethnic group has always traveled across the borders, lived in harmony with each other and nature, and still lives in many parts of the region. Their present serves as a gathering factor in a region of great differences. Further, there are the enormous amounts of natural resources both in form of oil, gas, minerals and fish, but also woods and nature experiences. The region sees itself as a region high on resources and low on people. This brings them together in their common attempt to explore the possibilities of the known and the unknown. Still, on the basic ground level of the Barents identity you will find the arctic deep sea and the rough cold climate. These people have long traditions of harvesting the sea and surviving the harsh weather, and this makes them stick together and help each other. All together their common identity creates a spirit of community across the borders. Is it strong enough to build a region upon?

Its about time in the Barents Region

The Barents Region is all about time. To understand time is an condition to understand this region. This is a place where the past, present and the future are very closely connected. One could feel the presens of both the history and the future of the places we visited.

The fishing villages on the coast of Northern Norway is now the home of recently redundant fishing industry workers. People here wants jobs. New jobs. Innovative jobs. Different form those that was before. People from the past are waiting for the future.

Murmansk also wears its history of a Soviet state on the outside. Take the property situation in Murmansk. After the fall of the Soviet union a goal has been to privatize the way people live. This has to some extent been done, yet only single private apartment. The building as a structure, with roofs, stairways, facades and outside areas are still owned by the authorities. Caught between the past and the future. Also here, people are waiting. For the oil. for the new jobs, for the wealth and the cars that is going to come. Sometime in the future.

The Barents is changing rapidly. The Barents Region today is in a state of in between.

The Barents Project team

The 8th of September 2008, 8 students and 2 teachers from the department of urban design and planning at NTNU in Trondheim embarked on a trip that was going to change both their lives and the future of the whole barents region. Hopefully. Maybe.