April 23, 2025

Norway proposes new management system for fish farming

 

 

Norway is proposing a new management system for fish farming that it said will make it more profitable to operate with low environmental impact and good animal welfare, Fish Farming Expert's Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, reported.

 

A White Paper published on April 11 describes the steps the Norwegian government will take to ensure that the aquaculture industry "can continue to create value from the sea and contribute to vibrant local communities along the entire coast".

 

"The government wants to develop the aquaculture industry and facilitate the greatest possible overall value creation," said fisheries minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss. "We must therefore modernise aquaculture policy. The main point in the White Paper is that we will primarily regulate how production affects the environment, fish health and welfare, and not how much is produced. This is also in line with the Aquaculture Committee's report."

 

The government wrote that it is an important goal for it to ensure acceptable impacts from sea lice.

 

"Adjusting the maximum allowable biomass (MAB) at the company level is an inefficient measure," said the government, which is therefore planning to regulate the impact of lice through tradable quotas for lice emissions. The quotas will be set on the basis of what nature can actually tolerate in a given area, it added.

 

Everyone involved in the production of salmonid fish will be covered by the quota system. Tradable quotas will facilitate flexibility for the players and cost-effective reduction of emissions in the individual area, the government believes.

 

"We want the release of sea lice to have a direct cost for the farmers," Næss said. "In this way, it will become more profitable to operate with a low environmental impact. This will provide more accurate regulation of the industry."

 

According to the government, today's quantity restrictions at the company level mean that players have few incentives to develop, invest in, and adopt more environmentally friendly production methods.

 

"This is how the quantity limitation contributes to slowing down value creation, innovation, and technological development in the aquaculture industry," the government said.

 

By introducing what the government calls a more targeted regulation of sea lice impacts, it believes there is no longer a need for a quantity limitation at the company level.

 

"Removing the quantity limitation in the aquaculture permit means that operators will be able to choose to a greater extent how they want to comply with the new lice regulations. Those who take good action will be able to increase their production," the government said.

 

A permit will still be required to operate aquaculture. The aquaculture permit will grant the right to aquaculture production in a specific geographical area but will not contain any restrictions on quantity or species.

 

"In order to facilitate the most appropriate distribution of community resources, the government wants new permits under the Aquaculture Act to be awarded through auction," the government added.

 

The government wrote that treatment for sea lice is one of the main reasons for poor welfare and high mortality in farmed fish. To prevent efforts to reduce sea lice releases from being at the expense of fish welfare, the government proposes to introduce a fee for lost fish.

 

"We have seen for a long time that fish welfare in the aquaculture industry is not good enough," Næss said. "In the animal welfare report, we set a specific goal of getting mortality down to 5%. We are now following up by introducing a fee for lost fish. We will set the fee low at the start and possibly increase it over time. The goal is for fish welfare to be so good that most people do not have to pay the fee."

 

"The proposed system is technology-neutral and allows the players to use the solutions they themselves find most appropriate," the government said.

- Fish Farming Expert