Tuesday 23 May 2017

Closed Containment - Norway, Who'd a Thunk It?

While I can't seem to find Helge Aarskog, CEO of Marine Harvest, saying closed containment is the coming thing in Norway, the business association that includes MH, Norsk Industri announced the end of open net fish farms.

After I got up off the floor from falling out of my chair, I went, Hold on a second, I remember Aarskog saying they were putting $100 million into closed containment, but that the 'egg' container and the offshore super tanker were his answers.

You will note that the all the 'closed' containment in-ocean plants - egg, closed, ship - seal the fish off from lice but have great big pipes off the bottom end from which the sewage falls, eutrophying the lungs of the planet, your and my ocean.

But the North Atlantic Salmon Federation (NASF) a member of my post on the global citizens against fish farms thinks there is some sincerity to this. (See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/05/global-citizens-call-for-on-land-fish.html.)

I'm not holding my breath, but here is the article that tells you all about it:

No More Open Sea Fish Farms

Posted on 18th May, by NASF in Latest News, Press coverage, Press release. No Comments

No More Open Sea Fish Farms

No more growth until problems are solved says CEO of Norsk Industri

See: http://www.nasfworldwide.com/latest-news/no-more-open-sea-fish-farms/.

"The North Atlantic Salmon Fund (NASF), Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), NASF (Norway), Norske Lakseelver, Norges Jeger & Fiskerforbund (NJFF), and other conservation organisations have campaigned for years against the damage to wild salmon stocks caused by the farms. Representatives of the groups were given the good news in Norway at the 10th annual Hardangerfjord seminar on fish farming."

The news is that: "The news of the halt in the expansion of the industry was announced by Mr. Stein Lier-Hansen, CEO of Norsk Industri. His organisation, which includes the main salmon farming interests and Norway’s biggest grouping of commercial companies, like Norsk Hydro, Aker, Stataoil and Marine Harvest..."

And: "But recent “polluter pays” costs of combating sea lice, escapes, fish diseases, high mortality, waste management and low levels of oxygen in some fjords have shot up by more than 30%."

And the NASF says: “This underscores a policy to abandon all further open sea salmon farming despite the industry´s high margins because  the necessary conservation measures overshadow the temporary extreme profits.”

And:  "Between 15 and 20 closed-containment systems in the sea are now in operation in various fjords in Norway and many conservation groups believe these producers can equal or beat the cost of open-cage farms."

Fish farms spent 15 Billion Kroner in 2016 trying to eradicate lice (about $1 billion Canadian).

And: "This group embraces NASF International, Atlantic Salmon Fund (ASF), NASF (Norway), Aquafuture (Germany), The Grassy Creek Foundation (US) and several other organisations who meet around the world to collect information, liaise and bring groups together in this respect. Already there are a great many such safe projects underway in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, France, Scotland, Canada and the USA.'

Here is another article on Norway moving to closed containment (this doesn't necessarily mean on-land):  https://www.fishandfly.com/no-more-open-sea-fish-farms-says-nasf/.

Here is NOFIMA (Norway) on research in Japan, Canada and Norway: https://nofima.no/en/nyhet/2017/04/international-collaboration-gives-better-fish-farming/. Take this with a grain of salt as NOFIMA has long been seen as serving industry needs versus the environment. The Kjersti Sandvik book, Beneath the Surface, is one source of information on NOFIMA's capture by industry.

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See this link for an image of the 'Egg' fish farm, said to be closed but has pipes out bottom from which sewage can fall: https://www.ft.com/content/a801ef02-07ba-11e7-ac5a-903b21361b43.

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