The brothers' first boat was called Lafjell. At the time, they were mainly involved in whaling and cod fishing with gillnets. In the years to come, trawls and purse seines were introduced.

In 1965, the Hansen brothers bought a 65-foot cruiser. The boat was called Asbjørn Selsbane and the name has followed the company ever since. In 1970, MS Asbjørn Selsbane was sold and replaced with the side trawler MS Stortind. MS Stortind was renamed MS Asbjørn Selsbane and underwent major refurbishments in the years to come. These included a new bridge, new winches, shelter decks, a new main engine and transom and the installation of a freezer storage.

Noragutt was purchased in 1995 (formerly Nordkappjenta and Øystein Angel). Originally a longline boat, it was now converted and rigged for fishing with danish seine, purse seine and whaling. The boat was sold in 1999.

In 1998, we placed our first order for a new boat, MS Norafjell. The boat was a combined purse seiner/trawler of 145 feet. The following year, operations were expanded and we built a new coastal fishing vessel called MS Asbjørn Selsbane. The boat was 90 feet long and fished with seine nets, Danish seines and did whaling. The company now had two boats in operation. A number of other investments were made and the company expanded, including a new operations building at the quayside in Lødingen with a processing facility for whale meat and a net workshop.

Until 2005, the company was owned by Alf Hansen and his son Andreas Hansen. During these years, the company underwent a number of reorganizations, including on the ownership side. Alf Hansen transferred large parts of his shares to his seven children and in 2006 a demerger was decided whereby the company was split into two and Norafjell AS was founded. Norafjell AS took over the operation of MS Norafjell, while MS Asbjørn Selsbane remained in Asbjørn Selsbane AS. Furthermore, in 2008 we chose to sell MS Asbjørn Selsbane and replaced it with MS Julianne III. MS Julianne III was built in 2005 at SIMEK Norway and is a combined net/trawler and purse seine vessel. In December 2013, Julianne was sold to Unity in Scotland. Today, we have MS Asbjørn Selsbane, which was delivered from Karstensens Skibsverft on September 19, 2013 and MS Stødig which also was delivered by Karstensens Skibsverft 10 years later, in May 2023.

The tradition of catching whales with harpoons in Norway dates back to the 13th century. At that time, the value of the whale lay in the whale oil and the whale meat. In the 1900s, the demand for whale oil fell as it was increasingly replaced by petroleum. Fishing in the Southern Ocean became more efficient and a larger number of animals were taken for human consumption, which resulted in whale populations being on the brink of extinction and in 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) proposed the introduction of a total ban on commercial whaling, which Norway opposed. Nonetheless, Norway chose to introduce a temporary ban on whaling until more was known about the size of the population. In 1993, Norway resumed commercial hunting of minke whales after gaining acceptance in all professional circles, both in terms of taxing a sustainable population and acceptance of hunting using humane harvesting methods.

Whaling has been and remains an important part of the company's history. For many years, this was considered one of the company's main businesses and perhaps what we have been best known for.

Asbjørn Selsbane AS is covered by the Norwegian Act on Corporate Transparency and Work with Fundamental Human Rights and Decent Working Conditions (the "Transparency Act"), and is thus obliged to carry out and account for due diligence assessments to ensure fundamental human rights and decent working conditions.

In order to anchor this work in the company, the board has formally decided that the company will implement the Transparency Act and review its policies, purchasing procedures and supply chains. The work is being done in line with the OECD's due diligence model for responsible business conduct. The work is dynamic and must be carried out continuously to have a preventive effect. The business and its suppliers are reviewed using risk-based due diligence, which looks at the risk of violations of human rights and decent working conditions.

Read our report for the financial year 2023 here: Statement Transparency Act