May 3, 2021 — The bilateral fisheries agreement negotiations between Norway and the United Kingdom that ended with no deal reached between the two nations on Thursday, 29 April has sparked uproar in the regional seafood industry.
While both sides said that they worked hard to secure a deal, the countries said their positions continued to be too far apart to reach an agreement for 2021. Talks had been ongoing since January.
April 29, 2021 — In Norway, one of the world’s top two producers of farmed salmon, raising fish at sea in closed cages has been tested for nearly a decade. Multiple contained floating systems are in commercial use there now after yielding positive test results. Whether such farms’ scale, though, fit Frenchman Bay, where a ferry, tour boats, fishing vessels and pleasure craft already coexist, is among many questions sparked by American Aquafarms’ plan to grow fish there on a large scale.
On Norway’s northwest coast, beginning in 2016, the “Eco-cage” system that American Aquafarms’ proposes for Frenchman Bay was tested by its producer, Ecomerden AS, at the salmon farm Sulefisk in the westernmost Solund Isles archipelago for a two-year period. Compared to open-net pens used in Maine, the closed, floating system fared better. In 2018, Ecomerden AS General Manager Jan-Erik Kyrkjebø reported sea lice, a parasite that feeds on salmon skin and accounts for much fish mortality, had ceased as an issue and predators failed to penetrate the ocean pens’ strong, flexible membrane sack. Kyrkjebø also said the Norwegian company’s closed system boosted the salmon’s survival rate and reduced the fish’s grow-out period leading to harvest, according to Undercurrent News, a London-based, independent online journal focused on the global seafood market.
Earlier this year, Ecomerden, whose Eco-cage is proposed for Frenchman Bay, sold its semi-closed system for commercial use to the Norwegian salmon farm Eide Fjordbruk in the southwestern fjord town of Eikelandsosen. Another Norwegian fish farmer, Osland Havbruk, is using the Eco-cage to raise salmon in Norway’s largest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord, on the west coast, according to the Norwegian journal SalmonBusiness. However, Ecomerden’s Eco-cages are not yet being used commercially elsewhere in the world, according to American Aquafarms Vice President Eirik Jors.
April 21, 2021 — A growing demand for cleaner fish in salmon farms raises concerns about overfishing and human-mediated geneflow to wild populations. A recent study reveals that up to 20 percent of the local populations of corkwing wrasse in mid Norway may constitute escapees and hybrids.
Every year, millions of wrasses are caught along the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, and transported to salmon farms for parasite control. Effects on the wild harvested populations, and the risks from cleaner fish escaping the farms, are poorly investigated.
Two recently published studies take a closer look at how the current fishery is affecting source populations and ecosystems, and to what degree translocated fish are escaping and mixing with populations outside the fish farms.
March 11, 2021 — Norway plans to kill up to 1,278 minke whales this year, according to a recent announcement made by the country’s fisheries ministry. This is the same quota as the previous two years, although whalers only killed 503 common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in 2020, and 429 in 2019.
“Norwegian whaling is about the right to utilize our natural resources,” Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s minister of fisheries and seafood, said in a statement in Norwegian. “We manage on the basis of scientific knowledge and in a sustainable manner. In addition, whales are healthy and good food, and Norwegians want minke whales on their dinner plate.”
In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which went into effect in 1986. But Norway, despite being a member of the IWC, formally objected to this ruling, and has continued to kill whales every year since 1993.
While proponents argue that Norway’s whaling program is sustainable, some scientists, conservationists, and animal welfare advocates disagree, arguing that it is unsustainable, unethical, and runs counter to the country’s conservation goals.
February 12, 2021 — Trondheim, Norway-based Norcod, the Norwegian cod-farming venture, has announced a doubling of production volume.
Norcod CEO Christian Riber said the company had achieved “a new milestone”
February 9, 2021 — Norway’s seafood exports fell by a double-digit percentage in January 2021 compared to 2020, largely the result of ongoing downturns related to COVID-19.
Norway exported NOK 8.1 billion (USD 941.5 million, EUR 786.1 million) worth of seafood products last month, some 16 percent or NOK 1.6 billion (USD 185.8 million, EUR 155.3 million) less than it sold to overseas markets in January 2020, with reduced demand for salmon accounting for much of the downturn. Reduced exports of trout and fresh cod compared to the record month of January 2020 also contributed to the lower earnings.
January 6, 2021 — Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Norwegian seafood exporters managed to have a near-record year of sales.
Norway exported 2.7 million metric tons (MT) of seafood products worth NOK 105.7 billion (USD 12.6 billion, EUR 10.2 billion) last year, the second-highest trade value ever achieved by the Scandinavian country, falling just 1 percent short of 2019’s record.
December 29, 2020 — The North Atlantic Seafood Forum has been postponed to June 2021.
The event had originally been scheduled to take place in Bergen, Norway, between 9 and 11 March, 2021. The new dates of the event will be 8 to 10 June, and the conference has been moved to a digital format, due to complications caused by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
December 28, 2020 — The Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) and non-profit EAT have entered into a partnership to promote the increased consumption of sustainable seafood ahead of a United Nations summit on future food systems.
Oslo, Norway-based EAT describes itself as a science-based global platform for food system transformation. It was created through funding from the Stordalen Foundation, the Stockholm Resilience Center, and the Wellcome Trust.
November 16, 2020 — Nearly two dozen Norwegian companies have received salmon farming licenses to pursue pilots of their innovative aquaculture concepts, but when these futuristic concepts will hit the water at a large scale remains murky in some cases.
A total of 20 companies received 102 development permits between 2016–2020, and while many have not even begun construction of the projects, the Norwegian government says the green light to pursue the farming systems won’t be turned off.
The development permits (see sidebar) were granted in some cases for a period of up to 15 years, giving companies plenty of runway to raise financing and refine the technology — a critical element to the successful implementation of the projects, according to Anne Osland, section manager for the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries.
“Many of these projects are very complex, and that it may take some time to get into operation,” Osland told IntraFish.