Farmed fish ‘may not seriously harm wild salmon’, expert argues

A heated debate has broken out in Iceland over an article that argues farmed salmon escapes may not, after all, materially harm their wild cousins.

The claim was made by fisheries expert Gunnar Davidsson, Head of Natural Resources in the Tromsø and Finnmark municipality, Norway. He was writing in the Christmas edition of the fish and seafood journal Fiskifretta (also known as Fiskifrettir) part of which was  been published on the journal’s website.

Davidsson said claims by environmentalists and others about escaped farmed fish have not been materially  proved by research.

He maintained: “Genetic mixing is measured annually in most rivers in Norway and it is decreasing, adding that  releases have decreased a lot in recent years. 

“However, in some in some rivers it was still above the limit, and it is necessary to ensure that  both the equipment and maintenance were sound so nothing could happen which could have a negative impact on the wild population.”

He added that scientific research had not yet proved that farmed salmon had a permanent, harmful effect on wild salmon, pointing out that overfishing and the impact from power plants had wiped out wild stocks in some places – which was a different matter.

Davidsson’s claims came under immediate challenge from Elvar Örn Friðriksson, executive director of the North Atlantic (NASF) Wild Salmon Conservation Fund, who said he rejected the comments, especially those about the propaganda machine belonging to “anglers, rich people and business owners in Iceland”.

Davidsson’s comments that opponents of fish farming receive too much space in the media were “indicative of the echo cave in which the salmon farming industry lived in Iceland”, Friðriksson added.

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