November 27, 2007

Norway's cod production on steady rise

Norway's National Cod Breeding Centre produced more cod this year with 190 families.

Production rose steadily every half-year and a new record has been achieved this year.

Atle Mortensen, head of Norway's breeding programme, said their aim was originally to produce 200 families. The centre managed to produce 190 families, which is still impressive.

Production and fish quality improved on an annual basis due in part to the staff's honed experience and skills in the field.

Mortensen discussed one of the methods they use which is to remove fertilised roe of poor quality. This way, no time is wasted as they can concentrate production on fish of high quality.

A total of 30,000 cods will be tagged, weighed and measured this year. An electronic tag is placed in each fish's abdomen to enable identification.

Around 20,000 fish will be used in the ongoing breeding programme, while the remainder will be used for research on susceptibility to disease.