Workshop on the Norwegian Sea ecoregion Aquaculture Overview (WKNORAO)

  

The Workshop on Norwegian Sea Aquaculture Overview (WKNORAO) was established to assemble and synthesize the data and information for the Norwegian Sea ecoregion. This report summarizes the progress updates to the Norwegian Sea Aquaculture Overview, in particular the additional chapter on Management frameworks.

ICES work on aquaculture is part of a wider portfolio of work that seeks to advance and share scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and the services they provide, and to use this knowledge to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability goals. ICES has decided to establish aquaculture overviews, which will: i) summarize regional and temporal information on aquaculture activities, practices, and production of the cultured taxa; ii) describe the relevant policy and legal foundation; iii) consider the environmental and socio-economic interactions of aquaculture activities and practices; iv) provide insights on the interaction of environmental, economic, and social drivers; and v) consider future projections and emerging threats and opportunities.

The aquaculture activity in the ecoregion is currently only located along the coast, but there are initiatives also for offshore aquaculture. The total aquaculture production in the ecoregion was over 700 thousand tonnes in 2019. The main species were Atlantic salmon (96.8%) and rainbow trout (2.8%), both farmed with grow-out in open-net cages. The production of Atlantic salmon has more than tripled over the last 20 years. Other cultured taxa include sea trout, Atlantic halibut, Atlantic cod, Arctic char, as well as molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms.

The central legal instrument for aquaculture in Norway is the Aquaculture Act, with an overall objective ’to promote the profitability and competitiveness of the aquaculture industry within the framework of sustainable development and contribute to the creation of value on the coast’. Management of aquaculture involves authorities at all levels, from local to national, and public hearings. The ’traffic light system’ was established in 2017 to regulate the growth of salmonid aquaculture based on the industry’s environmental impacts so-called ’production zones’ along the coast. 

In addition to sea lice, genetic introgression by escaped farmed salmon and disease transmissions from salmon farms are considered as main threats to wild salmon. Other environmental threats include emissions of dissolved nutrients, particulate organic matter, pollutants and therapeutants.

The profitability of the aquaculture industry has varied over time, with very high values recently. The total employment in the industry is not very large, but it provides jobs to rural areas that have had a relatively poor population development. 

Development of the aquaculture sector requires the inclusion of new production concepts for farming Atlantic salmon both on land, in closed/semi-closed pens in coastal waters and offshore and expanding or starting farming of other species. Together with applying integrated ecosystem assessment/management and considering the effects of climate change, this requires close attention in future.