Norway sticking with traffic light aquaculture regulation system for now

Norway’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Marianne Siversten Næss
Norway's government postponed proposed changes that would have shifted away from its current "traffic light" aquaculture regulatory system | Photo courtesy of Sofie Dege Dimmen, NFD
6 Min

The Norwegian government has decided to postpone proposed changes to the aquaculture regulations governing its salmon industry. 

Norway’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Marianne Siversten Næss unveiled a whitepaper in April covering a number of steps the government wanted to take to regulate Norway’s aquaculture industry. Among those policies was an adjustment to how the government would calculate maximum permitted biomass at the company level, tying that directly to the prevalence of sea lice on salmon farms.

“We want the release of sea lice to have a direct cost for the farmers. In this way, it will become more profitable to operate with a low environmental impact. This will provide more accurate regulation of the industry,” Næss said with the release of the whitepaper.

The proposal was reviewed by a joint standing committee on the industry in the Norwegian Parliament, known as the Storting, which determined the proposal isn’t ready to move forward.

The current system uses the “traffic light” system, established for the purpose of sustainable management of aquaculture, which divides Norway’s coast into 13 different production areas. Those areas are classified as either green, yellow, or red based on scientific calculations of the perceived risk of lice-induced mortality on wild salmon numbers...


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