Local fisheries risk marginalization in the blue economy. This study explores fishers’ views on sustainability
challenges for local fisheries in Northern-Norway through a social survey approach. We asked: “What are the
three greatest challenges for fisheries in your municipality today?” and “In 30 years, what will be the greatest
challenges?” Fishers\’ concerns were compared to recent scientific literature on fishers ‘challenges globally to
identify issues not emphasized by our respondents (non-issues). These are issues that may be silenced, considered
non-problematic or that fishers lack knowledge of. Data from 360 fishers showed that challenges identified by the
fishers broadly pertained to nine domains – competition for space and resources, access to infrastructure,
workforce, economy, environment, governance, local communities, illegal activity and recognition of fisheries,
fishers and fishing culture. Aquaculture, competition within fisheries, access to landing sites, and recruitment
were frequently mentioned as specific challenges under these domains. Recruitment and depopulation of local
communities were mentioned by a higher proportion of fishers as a future challenge than a present day one.
Surprisingly, non-issues included challenges with known local relevance and high saliency, such as safety in
fisheries, destructive fishing practices, climate-change adaptation, environmental toxins in seafood and gender
equality. To sum up, challenges tied to the blue economy, particularly aquaculture, along with the current
downward trends within fisheries when it comes to number of fishers and local fishing industry are key chal
lenges facing local fisheries. Alternative visions for the blue economy that holds space for local fishing activity,
are called for
