The rowing boat and fishing line were the key to life for the people of the West Fjords. Farmers rowed for fish from almost every farm. In the winters and long into the spring the people would go to fishing stations. Fishing stations were often on promontories within easy reach of fertile fishing grounds. The farmers would live at the stations for a few weeks at a time, bait their lines, launch their rowing boats and process the catch. Finally the rewards of the season were divided. The captain and his mates would each receive their own part which they deposited with a merchant, where the fish was weighed and valued. Wind and weather and the s . Each farmer would return home with food for the table - or penniless. Tenant farmers could struggle on, or break up their families. A farm labourer might realise his dream, marry and start a family. It all depended on returns from the fishing season.

In past centuries West Fjords farmers were mostly tenants, as was the case throughout the whole country. They rented from the King, the Church or from wealthy men and undertook obligations for providing work, for land rent and rent for livestock. The farmer actually ran his farm like a company, with labourers, fishermen, tenants, boats and livestock. Profits mostly accrued to the landowner while the ordinary people survived, and sometimes a little more than that.

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