Predecessors in 1906 Following the
dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden in 1905 there arose a debate concerning access to fishing in Norwegian territorial waters. The predominant concern was that Swedes were fishing in Norwegian waters. Norway declared a territorial water in 1906 and instructed the navy to take action against any foreign vessels fishing in those waters. The following year British fishing vessels started fishing along the coast of
Finnmark. The fisheries inspection had an unarmed ship at the time, but asked for navy support.
Eidsvold and
Heimdal the following year was dispatched to aid. The first arrest of a foreign vessel took place in 1911 of a British
trawler outside
Varangerfjorden. The work was seasonal and was jointly financed by the
Ministry of Defence and the
Ministry of Fisheries. From 1914 it was entirely a military-funded operation. Later ships to participate were
Farm and
Valkyrje. off Iceland between 1940 and 1945 From 1924
Michael Sars also participated in this work. The first dedicated coast guard vessel,
Fridtjof Nansen, was commissioned in 1930. From 1937 it was supported by two smaller vessels,
Nordkapp and
Senja. Meanwhile, an espionage program was established to better locate illegal fisheries. All but
Nordkapp were sunk in 1940 as part of the
Second World War, although
Senja was raised and repaired. After the end of the war, the fisheries surveillance services were reorganized. A number of
whaling ships which had participated in the
Arctic convoys were put into use as surveillance vessels while the navy focused on
minesweeping. The surveillance was supplemented with
Flower-class corvettes. Three used
River-class frigates were taken into use in 1956, allowing
Nordkapp to be decommissioned in 1956 and
Senja two years later. The corvettes and later the frigates were used both for fisheries inspection and held in readiness for war. They, therefore, incurred high operational costs, were inefficient and had a large degree of conscripts. The Ministry of Fisheries appointed a committee in 1958 to consider the organization, and it concluded that the inspections should be a military affair. This led to the establishment of the Military Fisheries Surveillance, which consisted of three squadrons. Two were subordinate to the Navy Commands in Northern and Western Norway, respectively, while the third, serving the
Oslofjord, was subordinate to the Oslo office. Meanwhile, work started on planning a new class of patrol vessels, which resulted in the commissioning of the
Farm-class patrol vessel in 1962 and 1963. They were supplemented in 1964 by the used civilian
Andenes-class patrol vessels.
Establishment Norway extended its fisheries zone to from 1 September 1961, although it kept the old definition of territorial waters. This followed Norway's participation in the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, where there was a growing consensus for such an approach. Norway signed the
North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission in 1959, which took effect from 1970. This established common rules for fisheries within large parts of the European North Atlantic and standardized the inspection regimes. The surveillance ships carried out inspections during the fishing season and regularly caught foreign vessels using too small
mesh size. However, few vessels were controlled due to the fleet's lack of suitability for the task. The issue was discussed in
Parliament in 1973. After negotiations with the neighboring countries, a series of
trawler-free zones were established. Norway continued to work towards international agreements to secure an EEZ, led by
Jens Evensen. Parallel with this work the government started considering a new organization for the fisheries surveillance. The Stoltenberg Commission, led by
Thorvald Stoltenberg, was appointed in April 1974 and published its report in June 1975. In Norway there has traditionally been a strong negative sentiment against allowing military forces to be used against civilians. The Military Fisheries Surveillance represented one of very few exceptions. Several organizational models were discarded, including a civilian agency, a continuation of an integrated model and a virtual coast guard made up of units from various branches. Instead the commission proposed that the coast guard be organized as a separate unit under the navy. An important argument was to avoid duplicating services, such as an operative headquarter and naval bases. Meanwhile, the coast guard could act as a military presence to assert sovereignty. The Coast Guard was originally organized with two squadrons. The location of the garrison for Northern Norway became a heated political debate. A commission led by
Johan Jørgen Holst recommended either
Ramsund,
Sortland, or
Harstad, and the former received the majority vote in Parliament. The government followed up on the commission's report and established the Norwegian Coast Guard on 1 April 1977. At this time the Coast Guard had ten vessels in Northern Norway in addition to a seasonal fleet of up to thirty smaller, civilian vessels. Four vessels, all rented, were used in Southern Norway. The government funded the establishment with 1.4 billion
Norwegian krone (NOK), of which 1.2 billion was to be used for new ships. Two new P-3B Orions were bought for the 333 Squadron and the Coast Guard paid an hourly lease for their use in maritime surveillance. The new agency received three new helicopter-capable offshore patrol vessels, the
Nordkapp-class. These were delivered in 1981 and 1982. During the second half of the 1970s there was a discussion as to which helicopter should be procured. A government commission recommended the
Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk, but the
Westland Lynx was eventually preferred due to faster delivery and lower price. To operate the six Lynxes, the 337 Squadron was established and became operational in 1983. The
Andenes-class was retired, while the
Farm-class vessels were rebuilt and remained in service.
Early operations During the 1980s the Coast Guard's concentrated its work on fisheries surveillance. A major part of this involved inspection of the fisheries protection zones around
Jan Mayen and
Svalbard. Here Soviet and later Spanish fishing vessels were a major participant. The Coast Guard played a major role in assessing the amount of caught fish. In most cases where it found non-conformities the agency would issue warnings. In 1988 it carried out 1,273 inspections, of which 21 involved seizure and 16 were reported. However, written warnings were issued in 268 cases, and 106 oral warnings were given.
Andenes carried out two research expeditions to the Antarctic, in 1984–85 and 1989–90 as part of the Pro Mare research program. It was also used to signal the
territorial claim to
Dronning Maud Land and the
Weddell Sea. Andenes also participated in the
Gulf War as Norway's participation. It acted as a support ship of the
Royal Danish Navy's
Olfert Fischer frigate. Decreased fish stock during the 1990s resulted in more strict handling of violations. At the same time cooperation with neighboring countries improved. Greenlandic fishermen started fishing in the fisheries protection zones in 1991. In exchange for a Greenlandic acceptance of Norwegian and Russian management of the
Barents Sea stocks, Greenland was issued quotas. This simply escalated the conflict, with Iceland joining fisheries from 1993. They claimed the protection zone was not valid in accordance with the
Svalbard Treaty. The issue peaked on 5 August 1994, when
Senja seized an Icelandic trawler. In 1997 the Coast Guard carried out 2,192 inspections, issued 566 warnings and seized 18 vessels. After
whaling commenced in 1993, the Coast Guard was involved with in a series of skirmishes with vessels from
Greenpeace and
Sea Shepherd. The conflict with the latter peaked in 1994 with a collision between
Andenes and
Whales Forever. After this incident, the forceful threat from
anti-whaling activists diminished.
Change of scope Following the end of the
Cold War there arose a debate regarding the Coast Guards scope. With a diminishing threat from Russia, the navy decided that it would downplay the military role of the Coast Guard. This would allow the Norwegian Fleet and the Coastal Artillery to focus on training while the Coast Guard would focus entirely on its core tasks. In line with the trend of
new public management, the government was eager to introduce user payment for the Coast Guard. This would have involved the various civilian agencies, such as the JCRRs, having to pay for Coast Guard services. The Navy argued that a key role of the Coast Guard was a constant presence and that invoicing for use would decrease its efficiency since it had low
marginal costs with participating in SAR missions. In the end user payment was abandoned. By the late 1980s the L-3B Orions were becoming obsolete. Five were therefore sold to the
Spanish Air Force. Two were upgraded to the L-3N standard and four more new N-variants were bought. Most Coast Guard ships have been leased instead of owned. This was a continuation of the practice of the Military Fisheries Surveillance. At first, these were issued on short-term contracts, but from 1994 ten-year contracts were used instead. As part of this arrangement two new major ships were built, and . They were built based on specifications from the Coast Guard and included equipment for handling
oil spills. The Coast Guard underwent a major restructuring in the mid-1990s. The former services became the Outer Coast Guard (
Ytre Kysvakt, YKV) while a new Inner Coast Guard (
Indre Kystvakt, IKV) was established to patrol the territorial waters. The latter was based on seven patrol areas, each assigned one vessel. A new
Coast Guard Act was passed in 1997 and took effect in 1999. This involved a clearer division of roles between the Norwegian Fleet and Coastal Artillery on the one hand, and the Coast Guard on the other. The goal was to allow for closer integration of the Coast Guard and other civilian search and rescue agencies. The
relationship with Russia was complicated. In 1993 the Norwegian and
Russian Coast Guard held a common conference in Sortland and since communication has eased and several top-level conferences have been held. Management in the Barents Sea is subordinate to the
Joint Norwegian–Russian Fisheries Commission. Issues escalated in the early 2000s. In 2002 Russian inspectors boarded a Russian ship while it was being inspected by Norwegians. Three years later
Elektron ran off with Norwegian inspectors on board. cruiseferry
Richard With in
Trondheim in 2009
Svalbard was commissioned in 2002 as the first
icebreaking vessel of the Coast Guard. For the Inner Coast Guard, five
Nornen-class patrol vessels were commissioned in 2007 and 2008.
Harstad was commissioned in 2009 and was followed up with the tree vessels in the
Barentshav-class for the Outer Coast Guard. Norway ordered fourteen
NH90s in 2001. Eight of these were designated to the Coast Guard, while six will be used on the
Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates. However, the first helicopter was not delivered until November 2011 and as of 2014 no Coast Guard variants have been completed. The Coast Guard was reorganized from 2012. After a controversy regarding the new location, the two squadrons were disbanded. The new structure has its head office at Sortland Naval Base. This allows all staff, previously with a command at
Akershus Fortress in
Oslo and the squadrons at Sortland and
Haakonsvern to be co-located. All ships were subsequently re-registered with Sortland as their home port, although those based in Southern Norway retain use of Haakonsvern as their base. The Naval Home Guard commissioned two
Reine-class patrol vessels in 2010. One of these were transferred to the Coast Guard in 2013. Due to delays on the new replenishment oiler
HNoMS Maud it was decided that both
Reine-class patrol vessels would be transferred to the navy as
auxiliary ships. ==References==