• Scales from a Shetland whaling station. These stations were owned by Norwegian companies, where local men worked, processing the catch.
  • A herring net with other tools of the trade - sinkers, a brine tester and fishcurers tokens.
  • Changing technology meant new kinds of fishing gear fell in and out of use in the whitefish sector. Here you see lines, a protective arm-sleeve and boxes for shipping fish in ice.

Fisheries

Shetlanders abandoned indigenous technologies in the 19th century, and adopted new types of boat, fishing and navigation methods.  Our collection tracks the ever-changing industry, from sail to motor, from lines to nets, and from quadrant to radar.

Traditionally, whitefish was dominant. We hold many objects from the exciting era of deep-sea cod fishing – boats’ fixtures, navigational instruments and fish processing tools. No less important to Shetlanders were smuggled kegs of “Faroe brandy”.

Islanders caught haddocks in the home white fishery of 1850-1950. The museum holds all the equipment – lines, buoys, sinkers, lanterns, line-haulers. This became defunct when the industry moved to motor boats and catching by net from the 1940s. We have objects that made this successful, such as telecommunications, plus models of vessels.  

The pelagic sector has seen prosperity. It started with the Dutch fleet, and we have reminders of these welcome visitors, like boat paintings and souvenirs of Lerwick. We hold many objects from Shetlanders’ own herring fishery, not just gear for catching, but also processing and barrel-making.

Local commercial whaling was important in the 20th century, and we have various items from the stations operating around 1900-1920. Later, islanders followed the industry to the South Atlantic, and our collection holds pieces of apparatus and whalers’ crafts. Largest includes a harpoon gun, smallest includes painted penguins’ eggs.