Johan Macdonald is a recreational halibut fisherman living in the capital of Tórshavn. I met him as he was selling his day's catch in the harbor, and he invited me onto his boat and then to his house for a coffee, where he spoke at great length about the fishing industry in the Faroes. In the past, most people either fished or raised sheep, and each village could sustain itself more or less through bartering. That has apparently changed drastically as more and more young men are taking jobs with large fishing companies that fish the North Atlantic and Bering Sea. By crewing these large vessels, these men can make a year's wages in one month. The smaller fishing boats are starting to disappear, and it is money, not fish, that now sustains the fishermen and their families.

Laws are slowly being put into place to protect the islands’ primary catches, such as cod and herring, but not much protection is given to secondary catches, such as the halibut that Johan goes after, and he has found his lines are increasingly empty of fish. Aquaculture has developed into a major industry in the Faroes, and farm-raised Faroese salmon can now be found in fish markets around the world.