Open net-pens are being banned in North America. What will this mean for wild salmon and the Norwegian aquaculture industry?
Norwegian aquaculture companies have therefore been wise to establish themselves along the coastlines to several continents. But in North American waters, the industry has begun to face difficult realities.
With the stated aim of saving wild salmon, all US states on the west coast of North America have now banned open net pens. The Canadian west coast, where Norwegian aquaculture companies have invested heavily, is set to follow suit in 2029.
“Banning fish farming was the best thing Alaska ever did”
With her work clothes hanging on a hook behind her, Linda Behnken, head of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, sends a digital greeting from her home office. The slightly blurred images from an early morning on the North American coast are reminiscent of Mowi's advertising images of Kristofer Hivju, who usually looks like he has just returned from harsh conditions at sea. Behnken, however, is "the real deal."
Behnken makes her living from wild fishing and is the recipient of the Heinz Prize for her
environmental commitment. She is provoked by the aquaculture industry's attempts to portray farmed salmon as something "wild" and "natural".
"How can they claim that fish farms represent wild nature when they're polluting the very same water they depend on? In addition to discharges such as eutrophication and microplastics, the farms carry viruses, bacteria, parasites and genetic pollution that threaten the environment around them," she says.