Copenhagen’s last fishermen – an industry struggling to stay alive

In southern Copenhagen, surrounded by apartment blocks and redevelopment, Brian Kyen stands beside his boat, working on the repairs required to start fishing. The hundreds of boats that once sustained an industry are now no more than lodgings for the people whose lives once existed at sea.  

Living in his great-grandfather’s apartment, fifth-generation fisherman Brian is the last of his kind. Primarily catching eels, he uses traditional fishing nets, ‘bundgarn’ in Danish, setting them down in the same locations they’ve always been placed. For as long as he can remember, fishing sustained his family and the fishermen of Fiskerihavnen. Now, he works alone.

“It’s a very, very, very small fishery right now”, he says. “There’s just less fish.”  - Brian Kyen

Odin Earland has spent his whole life watching the change; a third-generation fisherman now retired, he remembers as a child sitting in the harbour catching fish. “There was a hell of a lot of money”, says Odin, remembering when fishing was a major part of the local economy. Fishermen would take their catch into Copenhagen and sell it directly to customers. 

“It’s a dead ocean” - Odin 

To both Brian and Odin, the industry’s decline has been dramatic.

Odin gets up his phone and shows us photos of melting oil washed up on the shore - a short boat ride from the harbour. Despite incentives to clean up the harbour areas to make the water safe for swimmers, Odin credits polluted waters as the main reason the fish have disappeared. When it rains, he says oil from a nearby scrapyard can be seen seeping into the water throughout Fiskerihavnen. Odin’s concerns echo a legacy of industrial pollution in Copenhagen’s waters. Copenhagen municipality has previously recorded contaminated sediment in harbour areas in and around Fiskerihavnen, particularly noting elevated mercury levels. A more recent 2020-2021 government test on fish within Copenhagen’s harbour found continued elevated levels of pollutants such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. While Copenhagen transforms its former industrial waterfront into apartments and recreational spaces, the pollution below the shore has not disappeared, and the consequences for the community of fishermen remain.

Environmental pressures are only a slice of the story. EU regulations protect the critically endangered European eel, and EU members must restrict commercial fishing of it; alongside this, Denmark has imposed its own measures, including seasonal closures. These restrictions have made it very difficult for the industry to maintain itself, and Brian is struggling to understand if the damaged industry can renew. Brian’s fishing licence is one of the last; he says that retired fishermen are no longer able to pass their licences down, making entry into the industry for younger generations increasingly difficult. Brian says that this year, a delay in the reissue of his licence meant that it didn’t come through until the 7^th of August, leaving him uncertain on whether he’d be able to fish at all. Starting each season is a long and expensive process, and he’s still restoring his boat, ready to fish only after receiving his licence months later than expected.

Where lively expanses of green forests and flourishing ecosystems stretched along the curve of Fiskerihavnen, it is now home to multi-story apartment blocks and additional large buildings under development. Odin pointed out the new and ongoing construction and recalled the time when “there used to be forest over there.... there was grass and green”.

In addition, Stejlepladsen, a large green area visible directly south of the harbour, was historically used as a place for the fishermen to hang, dry and repair fishing nets and equipment. The area was legally protected. It was covered by the Kalvebodkile nature conservation; it was within the shore protection line and was regarded as a natural protected area and had been for around 30 years. However, in 2019, legislation was passed which removed the existing nature protection status from Stejlepladsen, as well as the applicable shore-protection status. In 2021, Copenhagen approved the local plan for Stejlepladsen, allowing substantial residential development.

Whilst Copenhagen cleans up its waterfront, becoming a leading tourism hot spot and making way for new development and economic ventures, environmental concerns, the reality of urbanisation, and the dismantling of the community that once existed for Brian and Odin remain. For them, the Kommune’s financial incentives take precedence over their livelihoods, and the changes of the last few years have taken a toll on them both. Without collaboration, the once lively harbour risks total eradication in the years to come.