Trondheim welcomes salmon show
Speaking at the opening of Aqua Nor, Ottervik was quick to welcome the 20,000 delegates expected to the show and reminisced to the days of the region’s first successful salmon farmers – two brothers – who confounded the critics who’d claimed it would never be possible to confine such an active fish. Two years later, according to Ottervik, the brothers were “harvesting fish up to 12 kilos, killing them with police batons”.
Since then the industry in nearby Hitra and Froya, in particular, have been thriving, the mayor reflected, to such an extent, in fact, that the route into the city is now known as the “salmon road”.
As well as supporting a huge number of jobs in the area, Ottervik was keen to emphasise that Trondheim itself is fast becoming a hub for marine knowledge – with NTNU set to have 38,000 students by January 2016 and an Open Ocean Centre to open shortly too.
