Pros for fermenting fish vs. smoking or drying

Question

Surströmming is a hero of many short videos showing people going delirious over its smell. Leaving behind those reactions are purposely exaggerated to get clicks, the smell is certainly not delicious.

Why people has chosen such method of food preservation? Does fermenting fish give any advantages over smoking or drying? Does fermented fish hold longer? Or it's about the protection from bears? Or maybe it's more cost effective (less effort or resources)?

Why would I, as drop-out, choose to ferment fish for preservation?

Answer 1

Although I cannot give you any good source for this, it is claimed that surströmming (fermented herring) was invented by accident.

The traditional way to preserve herring is salt. Salt, however, was quite expensive in the baltics, far from salt mines and seas with high salt concentration.

So someone took a chance and used too little salt when storing their fish, which resulted in fermentation in the barrel. Then he or she was hungry enough to eat the fish later in spite of the smell and found out that it was objectively edible and subjectively good.

The value of this in an outdoor context is questionable. Fermenting herring takes some time and the product should be stored cold. If you want to preserve herring in the wild and have access to salt, simply use enough salt for preservation, not just enough for fermentation.