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Norwegian Aquaculture

November 25 th 2010

Credits: http://www.fao.org/fishery/countrysector/naso_norway/en

http://www.nmf.no/

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History and general overview • Aquaculture in Norway dates back to 1850 when the first brown trouts were

hatched. By around 1900 rainbow trouts were imported from Denmark and the first attempts at pond culture were initiated.

A technological breakthrough came around 1970 when the first cage was constructed. Ongrowing in cages proved to be safer and provided much better environmental conditions than onshore tanks or the various enclosures that had been used earlier, particularly with regard to salmon farming.

• The long and sheltered coastline of Norway, with its thousands of islands and inlets, as well as the Gulf stream providing a reliable and stable temperatures, has been proven to provide excellent opportunities for this kind of intensive fish farming.

Today, salmon and rainbow trout farming has developed into a major business along the majority of the Norwegian coast.

Along with the growth in salmonid farming, interest has also become oriented towards other marine species such as the Atlantic cod, the Atlantic halibut and the Spotted wolffish. All of these species are now in the process of being commercialised.

Oyster culture has also been practiced for more than a hundred years, while interest in other shellfish (mussels, scallops) is more recent.

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Human resources

• As a result of high labour costs in Norway fish farming operations have become highly rationalised. Since 1995 salmon and trout production has more than doubled, while the number of employees employed in primary production has been reduced. The same pattern can be seen in the slaughtering and processing sector, while employment relating to other species has increased.

The service and supply sector is also very important, since feed costs often are responsible for more than 50 percent of total production costs. The industry has become a major contributor to employment, as have suppliers of technical equipment, services and logistics.

The number of employees in 2009 were approx. 4.000 people, and the marked value of farmed salmon was NOK 18.000.000.000.

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Cultured species

The anadromous species Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is native of Norwegian waters, where spawning and smoltification has taken place in the country’s rivers since the last glacial period followed by an ongrowing period at sea. Wild stocks of Atlantic salmon have been caught since ancient times, both in rivers and in the open sea, along with the halibut, salmon has probably been the most valued fish species of all by people living along the coast.

The Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is the only fish species in Norwegian aquaculture which is not native, the species was introduced into Norway around 1900 and was produced in freshwater until the early 1960s. Transfer to sea water following smoltification became a successful process from the start and intensive ongrowing of fish to between 2-6 kg in sea cages has subsequently come to dominate rainbow trout production.

Farming of Atlantic salmon and Rainbow trout takes place along the entire coast from Agder in the south to Finnmark in the north. Since 1975 production has been regulated by government licensing.

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Cultured species

In the southern part of the country farms is producing 600.000 turbot fry (Psetta maxima) and about 250 tonnes of market size fish per annum. Hot ”waste water” from Norwegian industy is used in this production. Norway have production sites in Spain.

The spotted wolffish (Anarchichas minor) is a very promising aquaculture species which thrives in cold waters and is therefore very well adapted to production in northern regions.

This is also true for the Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus), of which a small, but stable, production pr. year is reached.

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Cultured species

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Cultured species

The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) has always been the most important species in Norwegian fisheries. As a result of seasonal variations in availability and fluctuations in catch from year to year, interest in farming the species has been shown for a long time. However following years of research, production of farmed cod is now growing rapidly.The content of trimetylaminoxid (which leads to trimetylamin) is lower than in wild fish, most likely because of the commersial fish feed.

In the Old Norse language, the Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) was called ‘the holy fish’. The fish is highly valued due to its taste and relative scarcity from the wild caught fisheries; it is therefore very interesting with respect to its prospects for aquaculture. The species has a complex biology and challenging production process. It has been very difficult to establish a stable production of high quality fry. Improvements are being made and today the volume is increasing especially due to its high price making production profitable.

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Cultured species

The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) is found along the entire Norwegian coast from the Swedish to the Russian borders. Various experiments in the extensive culture of this species have been carried out over the last 60 years; however, production has yet to reach commercial viability. The main reasons for this are a low price, logistical problems as well as problems with bird predation and marine biotoxins caused by algal blooms. Interest in mussel farming is still high however and production is increasing. Possibilities for high volume production are enormous along the long and highly productive coastline if a commercial breakthrough does occur one day.

Production of the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), both of juveniles and market size oysters, has a long tradition in Norway, and the Pacific cupped oyster (Crassostrea gigas) has also been imported for aquaculture purposes, but neither of these have reached any significant production volume. Experiments in the cultivation of the great Atlantic scallop (Pecten maximus) has also been on going for a number of years but again no commercial production has yet been established. .

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Cultured species

Sea urchins (Stronglocentrotus droebachiensis and Echinus esculentus).

Just started, 90.000 individs in 2010.European and Japanese markeds (gonads).

Yngelen kjem frå eit klekkeri i Bodø, som er den einaste yngelprodusenten i landet. Kråkebollane er klar for sal når dei er kring 42 gram. Det tek kråkebollane mellom 2 og 4 år å nå denne storleiken. Oppdrettskråkebollane veks hurtigare enn dei som lever i naturen.

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Practice/systems of culture As most of Norwegian aquaculture is based on anadromous fish (salmonids), there needs to be both a freshwater and a seawater stage of the production cycle. The starting point is the production of broodstock fish for the collection of eggs and milt. This is now almost entirely based on participation in genetic breeding programs and there are now 10 specialist producers of fertilised salmon eggs. For farmed salmon, the original breeding population was a selection of wild salmon caught from Norwegian rivers some eiht to nine generations ago. Rainbow trout now has around ten to 11 generations of family and individual based selection behind it. Breeding programs are also established both for cod and halibut.

The stripping of salmon takes place between October to mid January, while it begins in mid February for rainbow trout and continues for a couple of months. Fertilized eggs are then incubated, hatched and feeding begun using formulated feed in intensive systems. With the use of artificial light manipulation the first smoltification process takes place in August with smolts then being able to be transferred at sea, the smoltification process will usually be completed by June of the following year. Some freshwater production facilities include both hatcheries and smolt production while others purchase juvenile fry and produce smolt stage salmon.

Fertilised egg production from halibut and cod usually takes place between March and May, but this can be altered by using artificial light (photoperiod manipulation). Unlike salmon and trout, fry of these species have to be fed live natural plankton (rotifers, ) as a starter feed. This commonly takes place in intensive hatcheries, but semi-intensive systems in small inlets are also used for cod fry production.

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Practice/systems of culture

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Practice/systems of cultureOngrowing at sea is now almost exclusively based on intensive cage culture for all finfish species, some halibut is still produced in onshore tanks, but cage culture seems to dominate for this species also. Formulated dry feed account for almost 100 percent of the feed used; however, a small amount of moist pellets is still used. Ongrowing at sea takes from 14 to 30 months, the production at one site usually varies a lot in one production cycle, thus making this a very large-scale production system.

The cage systems used have essentially changed little from those first produced, basically; a moored, floating, square, hexagonal or circular unit with a closed net hanging down below it. While the first cages were wooden, with a net volume of 3 400 m, today’s cages are either very robust steel square platforms or circular plastic rings with net volumes varying from 3 000 to 40 000 m. Each cage usually has a surface area varying from 400 m up to 1 100 m, the nets can be from 10 to 40 meters deep. Regulations allow a total cage surface area of approximately 2 800 m per licence, but total area demand will be much larger when mooring systems are included. Circular plastic cages require more space than steel platforms.

There are Governmental regulations and recomodations for fish density in the cages.

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Practice/systems of culture

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Extensive and semi-intensive shell farming

All mussel farming is based on longlines utilising natural spat collection using hanging collectors, these are sometimes left for final ongrowing, but it has become more common practice to replant or thin the spat as it grows.

European flat oyster spat is usually produced in specific small, narrow inlets which have a freshwater layer on top, with this layer providing a ‘greenhouse’ effect with a temperature high enough for the oyster to spawn. Spat will then settle on collectors and can be transferred to hanging baskets for ongrowing. Intensive production of scallop and oyster spat has also been researched.

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Applied research, education and training

Norwegian aquaculture has developed through a close cooperation between industry and research institutions. The main research administration body is the Research Counsel of Norway, supported by another governmental body called Innovation Norway which deals more with business development programs.

Aquaculture research and academic teaching is undertaken by all Norwegian universities, the most important being the universities of Tromsø and Bergen, the Agricultural university of Norway, the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science and the Norwegian university of Technology and Science. Teaching is also provided at the regional university colleges.

Vocational training is given by several upper secondary schools based on a two year theoretical education in school plus a two year apprenticeship and leading to a craft certificate.

Several public research institutes are also involved in aquaculture research, the most important being the Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, the Institute of Marine Research, SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Institute of Aquaculture Research (AKVAFORSK). The main feed manufacturers (Skretting, EWOS, and Biomar) also have their own research departments and experimental facilities.

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The institutional framework The main agency vested with responsibility for public management of the aquaculture industry is the Directorate of Fisheries, which is an executive administrative body within the Ministry of Fisheries.

This agency is assigned the responsibility for coordination, administration and execution of surveillance and control. The main office for the Directorate is located in Bergen; with regional departments found in most of the Norwegian counties.

Other agencies involved in public management are the Norwegian Coastal Administration (Ministry of Fisheries) which regulates issues in connection with sea borne communication and traffic; the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Ministry of Agriculture), which controls fish health and welfare, as well as food safety and the Ministry of Environment which has responsibility for pollution and other issues of common interest. All these agencies have regional departments.

Local communities also have important responsibilities in the maintenance of areas for aquaculture purposes.

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Environmental impact The Green Warriors of Norway are accusing World Wildlife Fund for harming the environmental movement and the environment by attempts to green wash salmon farming: ”Skin the corrupt panda”, says a banner that will be brought to the protest.

”Monstercods”: escaped fromcod farms all over the country.

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Environmental impactFish, both salmon and cod, are escaping from fish farms every year. Consequences for wild-stocks in the rivers (genetic pullution).

Salmon lice: Consequences for wild-stocks in the rivers. Migrating salmon and trout get infected and survival rates may be reduced.

Areal conflicts: local authorities, fish-farmers, fishermen and local populations often experience conflicts in how to use the coastal line.

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Environmental impact

Etichs: worldwide critics on how much wild fish to be catched to feed farmed salmon. The alternative is of course to feed the worlds populations directly – sustainable fish farming ?

Critics on Norwegian fish-farming in British Columbia, Canada and Chile.

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Related links Salmon/Trout seawater:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11033/90345/version/6/file/sta-laks-mat-2-lokaliteter.xls

Employees:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11034/90348/version/9/file/sta-laks-mat-4-sysselsetting.xls

Salmon/ Trout freshwater:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11041/90369/version/5/file/sta-laks-set-1-tillatelser.xls

Emplyees:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11043/90375/version/7/file/sta-laks-set-3-sysselsetting.xls

Cod:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11052/90406/version/6/file/sta-torsk-1-idrift.xls

Employees:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11053/90409/version/7/file/sta-torsk-2-sysselsetting.xls

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Related links Shellfish:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11062/90436/version/5/file/sta-skal-2-lokaliteter.xls

Employees:http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11060/90430/version/7/file/sta-skal-4-sysselsetting.xls

Emplyees total (2008) : 4.867 (woman 863)

Sales 1998-2008: http://www.fiskeridir.no/english/content/download/11015/90290/version/11/file/sta-totalt-5-salg.xls

Approved slaugther and packing plants : 124 (2008)

Equipment producers: 33 (2009)

Well boats: 57 (2008)

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More info: AQUAMEDIA:The data for this page has been provided by FHL Aquaculture, the organisation responsible for professional Norwegian aquaculture http://www.feap.info/home/default2_en.asp

NORWAY.COM:Facts about the Norwegian Fisheries and aquaculture.http://www.norway.com/aquaculture/

SEAFOOD FROM NORWAY – AQUACULTUREhttp://www.seafoodfromnorway.com/page?id=100&key=14379

NORWEGIAN SEAFOOD FEDERATIONhttp://www.fhl.no/english/norwegian-seafood-federation-article15-14.html

DOWNLOAD PUBLICATIONS (in English):http://www.fhl.no/english/download-factsheets-and-other-publications-article3442-14.html