The fixed seines and the high scaffolding by the fjord is a fishing technique that has developed in the fishing of sea salmon in the fjord settlements in West Norway. “Sitjenota” – a seine bag open at one end – sits in the fjord immediately below the scaffolding with a guiding seine into the bag. To make the “sitjenota” stable in the current it is fixed with wires to land and with stones to the bottom. The fishermen sit in a little hut at the top of the scaffolding, high above the sea. When they see that the salmon has entered the seine they close the bag with a pulley mechanism. At Straumshovet it is easy to stay at the edge and watch when the salmon travels up the current. Formerly there was only a simple bench to sit on. The first scaffolding was erected at the end of the 1800s.
Salmon fishing had a great boom in the years after 1870, when the market value of salmon and trout increased. This caused a great pressure on resources, which led to legal limits of the fishing season and the regulation of the use of tools. Salmon fishing provided good income for the landowners. It was an interesting form of fishing with relatively low investments. In addition, there was great excitement connected with the fishing and hope of the “great pull” and getting the seine full of silver-glimmering fish.
