BJARNE HANSEN
Bjarne Hansen is a 70-year-old fisherman, ocean activist, and a living legend from the West coast of Jutland living in Thyborøn, Harboøre Tange. Son of ‘Rav’ Aage Hansen, Bjarne carries with him the activist spirit to save the Danish West coast from chemical pollution - a consequence of industrial activity in the area.
Bjarne, as a real ‘resident of the sea’, has lived all his life close to the coast, never further than a couple of hundred metres away from the North Sea, Thyborøn Canal, or the Limfjord. He spent most of his life as a fisherman - starting when he was only 14 years old, and getting his own fishing boat when he was 23.
AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE AND A BATTLE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
One of the environmental pollution stories that made history for the Danish West coast, has been the one connected to the company Cheminova and the disposal of chemical waste in the 50s and 60s. Bjarne Hansen tells us that Cheminova, during its first 40 years (1953-1990) of settling in Harboøre Tange, discharged its wastewater into both the sea and the fjord.
“My father was a fisherman both at sea and the fjord, and could quickly, in the mid 50s, see the consequences of this uninhibited discharge and landfill sites and tried to protest both against the Cheminova factory and the authorities. But it wasn’t until 1990, that my father and the Cheminova group succeeded in stopping waste disposal and untreated wastewater into the sea and fjords.”
As Bjarne tells us, the price was high for his father. As his conscience would not allow him to keep selling this - now poisoned - fish, he had to sell his boat and lost his job. In 1992, after 40 years of battle, Aage managed to stop further pollution by Cheminova in Harboøre Tange.
A BIG WIN FOR THE OCEAN MOVEMENT
“We saw the ocean as a food source that had to be cared for and nurtured..[the ocean] was generous to us until the chemical factory started using it as a scrap bucket - as they say "out of sight out of mind".
Although the pollution had been stopped, the fight was far from over. Despite being advised against it, Bjarne took up the fight in 2010 to try and remove the many thousands of tons of chemical waste that was still on Harboøre Tange and seeped into the Limfjord and the North Sea. After ten years of reaching out to and protesting against the responsible politicians and factory owners, as well as with support from Caroline Castanie Block, the campaign succeeded. Enough attention was created around and in the area, which, according to Bjarne, “contains so much poison that there is enough to kill the entire population of Europe - several times!”
On 6 December 2020, after intense political work and budget negotiations, Denmark experienced a big win for the ocean movement in the West coast. 2.7 billion DKK was allocated by the government over the next twelve years for the restoration of polluted areas. For the cleanup of the “Høfde 42” depot and the old Cheminova site alone, 675 million DKK was allocated, and another 1.04 billion was allocated for the cleanup of Rønland - the current factory site. That is a total of 1.7 billion DKK allocated to the restoration of Harboøre Tange from 2020-2032.
Bjarne strongly believes that the campaign succeeded to a great extent because of the way his father, Rav Aage, and the Cheminova group laid the ground for reacting and demanding better environmental conditions and responsibility for the Harboøre Tange area.
“One may say that the mission was successful and the operation can start, and for the next twelve years, the water around Harboøre Tange should be clean. The next generation must keep track of this.”
OUR OCEAN HERO
Bjarne’s time as an environmentalist in a small community and with a chemical factory, which employed 950 people, was, as he puts it, a lonely struggle. “Friends became enemies..but new friends also came.” He admires many of his own Ocean Heroes: Flemming Højgaard Madsen from the Cheminova group, who helped both him and his father, and Caroline Castanie Bloch, to name a few. “One day almost six years ago, [Caroline] came to my door and asked if she could help me with my work - and she is still here.”
When we asked him what he would like to thank the ocean for, Bjarne said:
“I have a lot to thank the ocean for. It has fed me and my family for generations..It has enriched me and my family with a gift in the form of amber, found by the sea and the fjord through two generations - and is today exhibited at my museum which is open in the summer for tourists.”
Bjarne remembers a lot of his father’s quotes and mottos from his time. He listed a few for us, to inspire the next generation of environmentalists:
"One is not a loser before they give up"
"The will to want gives the ability to be able to"
"Seek solitude while it is your friend, do not wait until it becomes your enemy"
"It will end well"