Proposed salmon farming rule changes 'are based on inadequate knowledge'

Extensive proposed changes to Norway's aquaculture regulations have been drafted with insufficient information, and the government must initiate an independent professional review of the country’s knowledge base, trade organisation Seafood Norway (Sjømat Norge) has said.

Seafood Norway, which represents around 700 companies in the seafood sector, was responding to a report which was commissioned by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries and published this week.

The report by Menon Economics, in collaboration with Copenhagen Economics, has investigated how a new tax or quota system for lice emissions could be set up to replace Norway’s failed “traffic light” system that governs salmon farming growth on the basis of estimated lice emissions from fish farms.

Unclear assumptions

According to the report, the current traffic light system provides farmers with too few individual incentives to reduce lice emissions. Menon considers that both proposed measures are considered more effective and cost-effective than the current regulation, but Seafood Norway challenges the knowledge base that the government has based its plans on.

“Seafood Norway supports the goal of fewer sea lice and lower environmental impact. However, we are strongly critical of regulation with fees or tradable lice quotas when very basic assumptions are still unclear,” said chief executive Geir Ove Ystmark.

The Menon report refers to calculations from the Institute of Marine Research that indicate that lice emissions must be reduced by over 80% in nine of the country’s 13 production areas.

Seafood Norway particularly highlights the calculations based on sea trout. The organisation points out that these imply a need for reductions of over 90% in modelled lice emissions in large parts of the country, from Rogaland to Bodø.

No account of cost to society

“It is dramatic. And it has been proposed without the authorities having documented how it will affect the aquaculture industry, what the change will cost the companies and, not least, what it could cost society,” said Ystmark.

Seafood Norway points out that the volumes of sea lice larvae that are said to emanate from individual fish farms cannot be measured directly. This is also evident from the Menon report, which assumes that regulation must instead be based on indicators that correlate with actual releases.

The Menon report assumes that emissions from individual facilities can be quantified with sufficient certainty, without examining the measurement challenges in more detail, says Seafood Norway. The report also lacks a complete socio-economic analysis of the costs of emission reductions compared to the environmental benefits, says the trade body.

Immediate independent review

Seafood Norway therefore believes that the authorities lack a sufficient basis for implementing extensive changes in the regulation of the aquaculture industry.

The organisation also says that a call by members of Norway’s parliament for a better knowledge base on lice impacts has not been followed up.

“The government should immediately commission the Science Committee (VKM) to conduct an independent scientific review of the knowledge base on actual and relative impact. This will reduce barriers, provide a more secure basis for regulation and build trust between wild fish interests, the aquaculture industry, research and management,” says Ystmark.

Menon proposes that changes should be phased in over five years, to give fish farmers time to make adaptations. The report does not take a position on whether the government should choose taxes or quotas, but points out that a quota system provides greater certainty for the amount of emissions, while a tax gives fish farmers more predictable costs.