"Aquaculture is now our second largest export industry, and it is important that Norwegian seafood has a good reputation," said Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans.
Photo: Sofie Dege Dimmen / NFD.
Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Marianne Sivertsen Næss, yesterday presented the White Paper No. 24 'The Future of Aquaculture - Sustainable Growth and Food for the World', a report in which the Norwegian government is committed to moving the focus from quantity to sustainability.
According to a release from the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, this White Paper outlines the steps the government will take to ensure that the aquaculture industry can continue to generate value from the sea and contribute to vibrant coastal communities.
"The government wants to develop the aquaculture industry and facilitate the greatest possible overall value creation. To achieve this, we must modernize the aquaculture policy. The main initiative in the White Paper is that we will primarily regulate how production affects the environment, fish health, and welfare—not how much is produced," said Sivertsen Næss, who added that this is in line with the recommendations of the Aquaculture Committee's report.
The document is a general framework that has been sent to Parliament for review. Once that review is completed, the proposed regulatory changes will go through the usual public consultation process.
"The Norwegian aquaculture industry has seen tremendous development and growth, creating value and jobs along the coast," Sivertsen Næss acknowledged during the presentation of the White Paper yesterday evening in Bergen. "Aquaculture is now our second largest export industry, and it is important that Norwegian seafood has a good reputation."
The Minister also recalled that with this growth have come challenges, especially related to the environment and fish welfare. "These challenges must be addressed swiftly. We see that current regulations do not provide sufficient incentives for sustainable operations. Therefore, the government proposes a new management system that will make it more profitable to operate with low environmental impact and good animal welfare," she announced.
The government highlighted that, under this approach, operators will, to a large extent, be able to influence the growth opportunities of their own businesses.
Likewise, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans highlighted that reducing the impact of sea lice and improving welfare will also positively influence the reputation of the industry to which Minister Sivertsen Næss had alluded.
One of the main objectives of the Norwegian government's new proposal for aquaculture is to ensure what they call "acceptable levels of sea lice impact." In their view, the current system of adjusting the maximum allowed biomass (MTB) at the company level is an ineffective tool. Therefore, it plans to regulate sea lice impact through tradable quotas for lice emissions.
The idea is that the total level of quotas will be based on the carrying capacity of nature in a given area, in line with environmental objectives, so it is proposed that quotas be established by regulatory zone, with no possibility of use or trade between zones.
The system will include all salmonid fish producers. The government believes that these transferable quotas will allow flexibility among operators and cost-effective emissions reductions in each area.
"We want sea lice emissions to carry a direct cost for fish farmers. In this way, it will be more profitable to operate with low environmental impact. This will result in more targeted regulation of the industry," Marianne Sivertsen Næss summarized.
The Norwegian government thinks that the current company-level volume limit provides little incentive for operators to develop, invest in, and implement more environmentally friendly production methods. In its view, the volume limit achieves just the opposite: it slows down value creation, innovation, and technological development in the aquaculture industry.
The Ministry proposes that, by introducing a more precise regulation of the impact of sea lice, a volume limit at the company level will no longer be necessary. Thus, removing the production limit on aquaculture licenses would mean that operators will have greater freedom to adapt to the new sea lice regulations. So, those who take good measures could increase their production.
Therefore, although a license will still be required to operate in aquaculture, the White Paper proposes a different system. The proposed new aquaculture license will grant the right to produce in a specific geographic area but will no longer include volume or species restrictions.
In addition, to ensure a more appropriate distribution of public resources, the government proposes that new licenses under the Aquaculture Act be allocated by auction.
The last of the key points included in the Norwegian government's aquaculture report is the possibility of introducing a new fee on lost fish. Since sea lice treatments are one of the main causes of poor welfare and high mortality in farmed fish, the government proposes to introduce such a tax charge to prevent efforts to reduce sea lice emissions from harming fish welfare.
"We've seen for a long time that fish welfare in the aquaculture industry is not good enough," Norway's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans stated. "In the Animal Welfare Report, we set a specific goal of reducing mortality to around five percent. We are now following up by introducing a fee on lost fish. The fee will start low and may be increased later. The goal is for fish welfare to improve so much that most won't have to pay the fee," she explained.
To conclude, the Norwegian government highlighted one last but not least detail about the new plan: the proposed system is technology-neutral and allows operators to choose the solutions they consider most appropriate.
This is important considering that, as reported by WeAreAquaculture, last January, the Norwegian executive seemed to opt for closed containment aquaculture to compensate for current traffic light system capacity restrictions.
The proposal, presented, as said, yesterday evening in Bergen, has already met with reactions from both industry and advocates of wild salmon in Norway.
One of the first to react to the proposal was the association of Norwegian Seafood Companies (Sjømatbedriftene), through a statement by its CEO, Robert H. Eriksson, who said that the aquaculture industry needs predictability and political will, not more studies, and called on the Storting - the Norwegian Parliament - to show leadership, take responsibility and ensure concrete measures that provide growth, predictability and sustainability.
"We share the Minister's goals of lower environmental impact and improved fish welfare, and we are ready to contribute. But after several years of references to this report, it is disappointing to see that the government is, in practice, extending the pause in Norwegian aquaculture policy by at least two more years in the form of new assessments," he said.
Not all companies were disappointed, however. Sondre Eide, CEO of Eide Fjordbruk, parent company of the closed zero-emissions technology company Watermoon - which appointed a new CEO just this week - said that the new aquaculture report points in a direction that is both forward-looking and responsible.
"We support the intentions and direction of the report and see it as a strong signal that it will now pay off to be precautionary, think innovatively, and invest in sustainable solutions," he said. "The report rewards innovation and provides space for technological development that can advance the entire industry."
Finally, Norske Lakseelver (Norwegian Salmon Rivers) - an association for management organizations or equivalent groups in watercourses with anadromous salmonid fish in Norway - also issued a press release in which it stated that several of the organizations driving the campaign for zero emissions in aquaculture believe that there is much good in the government's proposal to change sea lice quotas, and remarked that the time frame will be crucial.
"It is very positive that achieving the Quality Standard for Wild Salmon is now what sets the direction for future aquaculture," said Norske Lakseelver's Secretary General, Torfinn Evensen.
