Norway salmon traffic light system 'is costing the authorities billions'

Nordly, founder of the fish health company STIM, was clear when he took the stage at the AqKva conference in Bergen today, reports Fish Farming Expert's Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no. According to Nordly, the aquaculture industry needs a new and more holistic management by government to ensure both better fish welfare and sustainable growth.

“Today's management of aquaculture is far too fragmented and complicated. It should be brought together in one place through the establishment of a separate aquaculture directorate,” Nordly said from the stage.

The clear message was that the way the industry is regulated also means that the authorities are missing out on significant revenue.

Three wishes

Nordly highlighted three main wishes he has for the future of the aquaculture industry.

• The licensing regime must be changed, and permits should be regulated based on location.

• A separate Ministry of Aquaculture should be established.

• There must be stricter requirements for fish health and welfare, but the authorities must focus on the right measures and treat root causes, not symptoms.

He emphasised that the health of the fish must come first.

"If we get a better focus on animal welfare, fish welfare, production and biology, we can achieve far greater production within the current regime than we have today. But it has to be done in a different way."

Farmed salmon not the main threat

Farmed salmon and the facilities in which they grow are considered by many to be the greatest threat to wild salmon, but Nordly questions that perception.

Here he referred, among other things, to figures from the Alta River, one of the country's most important salmon rivers. There, studies over several seasons have shown that the proportion of farmed salmon, among several hundred fish examined each year, is between 0 and 0.8%.

“There has been a doubling of production, but has it gotten worse for wild salmon?” he asked rhetorically.

He also referred to research from Norway's Institute of Marine Research which, according to Nordly, shows that the genetic impact even with an input of around 10% farmed salmon is very low.

Traffic light system

The traffic light system's biennial assessment uses the modelled impacts of lice from fish farms on wild salmon to regulate whether production in Norway's 13 fish farming areas can grow by up to 6% (green), remain at the same level (yellow), or be reduced by 6% (red). When the traffic light system was introduced in 2017, it was to facilitate annual growth of 3%, said the STIM founder, who is critical of the development.

"Since then, it has practically only gone one way, with more and more production areas in red and yellow. It has spread almost like a cancer."

Currently, only production areas 1, 12 and 13 – the far south and far north of the country – are allowed growth. Nordly pointed out that this spring a reduction of 11,115 tonnes is expected, while growth in the green areas will amount to around 8,500 tonnes.

"The maths goes in the negative. What was supposed to be the industry's great growth regime, the Storting's political dream, ends up with a reduction of around 2,600 tonnes when the next auction round is over. That was not the legislators' intention."

He further claimed that the traffic light changes entail significant lost revenue for both the state and municipalities.

"Based on the valuation in the 2024 auction round, the authorities will lose around NOK 3.6 billion (£266.4 million) as a result of the changes in 2026."

Criticism of the ministries

Nordly was also clear in his criticism of the current ministry structure. He believes that the Ministry of Fisheries is weak on aquaculture and aquaculture biology, and does not understand the consequences of decisions for the industry to a sufficient extent.

"The focus is not on business development, but on control. In addition, the ministry is overridden by others, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Climate and Environment."

As an example, he highlighted the introduction of the resource rent tax, which taxes fish farmers 25% for the value added to fish while they're in the marine phase.

"The Ministry of Fisheries didn't know about it until just a couple of hours before it was launched."

'Mortality is a poor measure'

When it comes to fish welfare, Nordly warned against using mortality alone as a measure of good or bad welfare.

"Mortality is a poor measure of fish welfare. We need to treat the root causes, not just the symptoms."

He referred to comparisons with other production animals.

"If one adjusts for a lifespan equivalent to the salmon's time in the sea of around 15 months, the mortality rate in chickens, pigs and lambs would be higher than many believe."