About

Thorupstrand Coastal Fishermen’s Guild is an organization with the public-interest purpose of securing the future of open-beach coastal fishing in Denmark by ensuring that the coastal fishing community at Thorupstrand can hold shared fishing rights in the sea. The guild’s members jointly manage these rights and protect them from becoming objects of individual speculation and trade. Any Danish coastal fisherman who complies with the guild’s statutes may become a member.
The guild’s statutes can be found in Thorupstrand Kystfiskerlaugs Vider og kodeksparagrafdtægter (this link leads to a Danish document).

Coastal fishing families have traditionally worked together in share-based fisheries, where the boat, the equipment, and the crew each receive their share of the catch. At a coastal landing site, families and boat teams also cooperate on the shared operation and maintenance of the landing facilities and infrastructure. The guild is a new branch of the coast’s collaborative organizational tradition; it is not involved in the commercial operation of the boats but takes over the state’s role as the public institution whose fund of fishing rights secures the community’s fundamental and long-term ability to use the sea’s wild ecosystem in a sustainable way.
Thorupstrand Coastal Fishermen’s Guild has elaborated its mission statement in the Kodeks for kulturbevidst og naturskånsomt fiskeri.  (this link also leads to a Danish document).