An Atlantic Wolffish. The BlueRewilding project is led by Akvaplan-niva, in partnership with the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), with funding from Restorae and Trefadder/Vår Energi.
Photo: Akvaplan-niva.
A new project in northern Norway is aiming to restore kelp forests by reintroducing one of their missing predators, the Atlantic wolffish.
Led by non-profit ocean research institute Akvaplan-niva, together with the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, the BlueRewilding project plans to produce 500 juvenile wolffish from wild-caught broodstock at Akvaplan-niva’s research station outside Tromsø, before a controlled release into coastal waters.
According to the organisers, applications for release permits and fisheries protection measures will form part of the work. The project will also collect tissue samples from 50–100 wolffish across several fjords in Troms and Finnmark, laying the groundwork for future genetic population studies if further financing is secured.
Kelp forests along Norway’s coast began collapsing in the 1970s after fishing reduced numbers of predatory fish such as the wolffish. This allowed sea urchin populations to expand and overgraze the kelp, leaving stretches of barren seabed. Researchers say the wolffish has not recovered, possibly due to it taking 6-7 years to reach maturity, combined with the limited connectivity between local populations.
Project leaders argue that long-term kelp forest restoration requires a whole-ecosystem perspective, from foundational species to top predators. BlueRewilding is described as a first step in demonstrating how predator restoration could play a role in reversing decades of ecosystem decline.
The project is being funded by Restorae, an environmental organisation focused on ecological restoration and nature-based solutions, and Trefadder / Vår Energi, a Norwegian tree-planting and carbon offset initiative (Trefadder) working in partnership with Norwegian energy company Vår Energi to fund reforestation and environmental restoration projects.
The project’s steering committee includes ocean restoration expert Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda (Restorae), together with Øyvind Stråbø (Trefadder), Erling Natvig (Vår Energi), Camilla With Fagerli (NIVA) and Marianne Frantzen (Akvaplan-niva).
Avkaplan-niva said it will be responsible for the welfare of the wolffish throughout the project, as well as for managing the released fish after the pilot phase ends.