Aquaculture

Aquaculture in Norway began in the early 1960’s. This newly created branch of industry offered its pioneers enticing prospects indeed: shielded from the seasonal fluctuations common in fishery, fish farmers could spawn and breed their products without interruption. The profit opportunities were also inviting, as the products were in demand.

Aquaculture came to supplement the traditional fisheries industry and offered many Norwegians promising  mployment opportunities. Shortcomings and setbacks were unavoidable: insufficient feed, overpopulation and poor placement of ponds amongst other problems. The road to successful fish farming was a rocky one – but even if there were many reefs in the sea – in the form of many unresolved challenges – the fish-farmer never lost faith that aquaculture was an excellent concept, and perfected the system of aquafarming. On the contrary, the pioneers at an early stage developed a culture of helping one another and sharing information and data. Knowledge of the sea and fishing, combined with expertise in animal husbandry and confidence that there was a market for Norwegian salmon and trout, was their motivation. With its ethic of collective effort, and its common goal of becoming ever smarter, wiser and  ore competent, the aquaculture industry has never stopped developing and improving.

Fish-farming has now developed into a vital and extensive industry. Norway is now one of the world’s biggest producers of Atlantic salmon, and we are also farming many other fish species, albeit on a smaller scale as natural resources are limited.

Modern aquaculture, however, offers a way to produce fish and seafood in the quantities equired. In this way, supply can be adjusted to fit demand. Which is why more and more often, farmed and reared fish are consumed instead of their fellow species members caught in the wild.

The Norwegian salmon boom is based on 40 salmon stocks from the entire coast of Norway. Roe and milt was collected from these stocks, and became the genetic basis for Norwegian farmed salmon. Since the aquaculture industry is so young, we are a mere ten generations from those wild origins.

Download aquaculture brochure here.