Published 25.04.2025 Written by: Ruben Oddekalv and Arne Roger Hansen

NMF strongly reacts to the government's aquaculture report presented on April 10, 2025. Instead of taking the necessary and responsible stand against environmentally harmful open-net pen farming, the report paves the way for continued growth and self-regulation of the industry. NMF is particularly disappointed by the lack of measures against cod farming and the complete absence of requirements for closed containment systems, which could have protected wild fish, fjords, and the marine ecosystem.

Photo: Steinar Johansen – Havbruk, Fiskeoppdrett i Nord-Trønderlag- Licence CC BY 2.0

High Expectations for the Aquaculture Report

On April 10, 2025, the government finally released the long-awaited Aquaculture Report. NMF had high hopes that the government would at last recognize the seriousness of the many negative impacts on wild fish, both in the sea and in rivers, as well as the environmental damage to our fjords caused by open-net pen farming. Over the past few years, more and more politicians and nearly all environmental organizations have begun to acknowledge what the Environmental Protection Association has been fighting for on the front lines for nearly 20 years—namely, that the only responsible way to operate in the future is through closed containment systems. In closed systems, the farmed fish and the external environment are separated by a solid barrier, eliminating the risk of farmed fish impacting the environment and wild fish outside the pens. The list of negative impacts is extremely long, and only a complete shift to closed systems can prevent these problems from spreading to the surroundings and, in practice, destroying fjord after fjord.

It is important for us in NMF to emphasize that when we talk about closed systems, we are referring to floating, sealed units placed in the sea—not land-based facilities, which would require blasting large land areas and pumping water onto land. Both land-use conflicts and high energy consumption are factors that make land-based farming difficult to make profitable and responsible.

Warning Against Cod Farming and the Need for Systemic Change

NMF had also hoped that both their own and researchers' warnings about cod farming being a ticking time bomb for our increasingly threatened coastal cod population would be taken seriously. And that now, with the opportunity at hand, the government would introduce a ban on farming this species, which spreads highly negative inherited traits to the wild cod population. We are referring to the spread of domesticated genes that have been bred for rapid growth, producing "a lazier, dumber, and weaker cod" (quote from the cod farming industry), which can mix with local coastal cod stocks through spawning in the pens and escapes—ultimately leading to the total eradication of the unique genetic traits of these coastal cod populations in the near future. This, in turn, will result in a slow death for the local coastal cod stocks, which have taken thousands of years to genetically adapt to their specific fjords.

In short, we believe that cod farming represents an even greater threat to wild cod than salmon farming has posed to wild salmon over the past 50 years, and we had expected the government to recognize its responsibility and shut down the cod farming industry before it is too late.

Photo: Deformed cod from fish farm

The Government's Proposal – and the Shortcomings of the Report

For the past 20 years, NMF has therefore demanded closed floating sea-based facilities, where the existing open-net pens are replaced with closed systems that capture the waste currently being discharged in tons every day into our fjords—slowly but surely killing all life in these fjords due to nutrient pollution from the open pens. These closed systems would also prevent the spread of diseases and parasites such as sea lice to wild fish like wild salmon and sea trout, which often results in deadly consequences. As mentioned, NMF has also called for a total ban on cod farming.

But what did the government give us?

Here, a 100-page document is presented, where the focus is on the growth of the industry. The possibilities for growth are addressed based on only two parameters:

1. Mortality of farmed salmon inside the pens.
2. The impact of sea lice on wild salmon.

And how does the government plan to solve this? Well, the proposal is that the fish farmers themselves should be allowed to address these two growth parameters, using whatever tools they wish. Currently, there are many ideas circulating among fish farmers, such as sea lice lasers and submerged pens, to reduce the production of sea lice in the facilities, which would, in turn, lead to lower mortality in the pens.

The government is therefore not setting any concrete requirements for the fish farmers. Fish farmers will be allowed to determine their own options for how they can multiply the production of farmed fish. If they are unable to solve these two problems, they will not be allowed to expand fish farming production. However, if they meet these two criteria, they can increase production, essentially without taking any other biological or environmental considerations into account. What good does it do to have low sea lice levels if you destroy an entire fjord with massive fish waste discharges? Or what good does it do if the mortality rate of migrating wild salmon is low if you overfeed and, with your practices, cause all the fish in a fjord system to change everything from behavior to enzyme composition in their flesh?

An aquaculture report devoid of holistic environmental understanding.

When we know that the list of negative impacts from the aquaculture industry is as long as it is, why focus only on sea lice and the impact on wild salmon as the sole measurement parameters, when we finally have the opportunity to create regulations that can actually protect the environmental condition of our fjords?
In such a long and "comprehensive" document, should there not have been a single word about the pollution of our fjords? Has the government even considered what the aquaculture industry is doing to our once free and clean fjords? Not a single word about cod farming, not a single word about the spread of diseases to wild fish. Not a single word about wild fish becoming thick and inedible as food for humans, feeding on the waste that falls through the open pens. Not a single word about sea lice pesticides that kill our shellfish. All of these enormous problems could have been solved by demanding closed systems with wastewater treatment, which, after all, are readily available today.
Not a single word about all these factors that, both individually and especially collectively, make open-net pen farming the greatest threat to the marine ecosystems along our coast. What is the point of an aquaculture report that only promotes uncritical growth in the most environmentally harmful industry along our coast?

Over 20 environmental and wild salmon organizations came together with a proposal, which was also supported by some smaller fish farmers, suggesting that fish farmers could exchange an open license for two or three closed licenses. This proposal was completely ignored by the government. NMF believes that this proposal did not go through due to significant pressure from the large aquaculture companies, which, after all, produce tons of fish with the open systems they currently operate. These companies did not see any benefit in investing billions to convert their open systems into closed systems. They are making so much money with the current way of operating that they actually don’t know what to do with all the billions they have in reserve. NMF’s claim is that the pressure from the billionaires once again became too much for the weak politicians in the government.

Conclution

NMF views this report as a purely sea lice report, which may possibly reduce mortality in farmed fish inside the pens and perhaps help with the mortality of migrating wild salmon smolts and sea trout. However, when the fish farmers themselves are allowed to determine how to solve the sea lice problem, NMF believes it is already too late for our red-listed wild salmon. And no other issues are being addressed. On the contrary, greater growth in open pens (even if they manage to control the sea lice to an acceptable level for wild salmon and sea trout) will lead to increased problems with all the other negative impacts associated with fish farming in our fjords.
NMF would also like to add that this report is now set to be reviewed by the parliamentary groups of all the other parties in the Storting, before a final report is presented for a vote that will determine a majority in the Storting. There is a strong likelihood that the report will be further watered down according to the desires of the fish farmers themselves. Unfortunately, both the Conservative Party (Høyre) and the Progress Party (FRP) politicians in the Storting are so deeply in the pockets of the billionaires in the aquaculture industry that it is almost impossible to get any further.
Now we are sharpening our pens and getting ready to write our consultation statement. As the aquaculture report is presented now, there is quite a lot we need to comment on in the upcoming consultation, which is already set for May 6, 2025, with the deadline for written submissions on April 30 at 10:00 AM.