Salmon farmers given welfare award for ending cleaner fish use
Three salmon farming companies that ended cleaner fish use, and Akvafuture, a pioneer in the use of floating closed cages, have jointly been presented with the Fish Welfare Award at Aqua Nor in Trondheim.
SalMar and Cermaq, the world’s second and third biggest Atlantic salmon producers, were chosen by the award jury along with family-owned fish farmer Eide following their decisions to stop using cleaner fish.
Cleaner fish – wrasse or lumpfish – are placed in salmon pens to help control salmon lice numbers by eating the parasites off the salmon. But, like salmon, cleaner fish can be vulnerable to diseases and environmental challenges, and can be injured or killed if they are not successfully recaptured before a mechanical delousing treatment.
A difficult decision
Anders Fjellheim, executive vice president of farming at SalMar, said that ceasing cleaner fish use was not an easy choice, but the result of a long-term process.
“We saw that we were unable to maintain fish welfare for the cleaner fish and then the conclusion was that we have to stop doing this. Then we have to find other ways to protect ourselves from the lice. It will be important for us in the future to work with good alternatives, as we are now phasing out such an important tool for controlling the lice,” said Fjellheim.
Many years without lice
Akvafuture is based in Brønnøysund in northern Norway and operates fish farms at three locations in Vevelstad and Brønnøy municipalities, using patented, closed marine cages it makes itself.
Thomas Myrholt of Akvafuture said when he received the award that it is a very nice recognition to receive.
“There are many people in Brønnøysund who get a lot of motivation from it. We have been operating without sea lice for many years. We started about 15 years ago and wanted to deliver technology to farmers, but there was little desire to invest in it, so we figured we would just have to do it ourselves and lead the way,” he said.
Myrholt emphasised that it has been a long road, but pointed out that the company has produced hundreds of groups completely free of sea lice with the Akvafuture concept.
Reward and inspire
The Fish Welfare Award was established by Norsk Fiskeoppdrett (Norwegian Fish Farming) magazine - which is part of the Oceanspace Media group that also publishes Fish Farming Expert - and the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. The fish welfare group at Norway’s Institute of Marine Research has since also joined the project.
The award aims to highlight actors who have developed measures that improve fish welfare in the fry, food fish or broodstock phase.
The jury's reasoning was as follows:
- By highlighting the candidates, the jury wanted to point out the importance of welfare documentation in the transformation the industry is currently undergoing.
- The jury wanted to show that one must turn around in time, i.e. stop, if welfare is not good enough, and that it is extra important to have welfare documentation also in the final commercial scale phase, and that this should come earlier for cleaner fish, both in terms of effect and welfare.
- With the Fish Welfare Award 2025, the jury wants to inspire people to put fish welfare at the forefront of future development, so that conditions can actually be improved for the fish.
