Fish farming to play greater role in N.Atlantic – report – Fishupdate.com

Fish farming to play greater role in N.Atlantic – report Published:  31 July, 2013

AQUACULTURE will soon start to play a more dominant role in the development of the northern hemisphere seafood business, an influential new report suggests.

The North Atlantic Seafood Market report has come from the Icelandic Bank, Islandsbanki, which specialises in fishing issues.

With a special focus on Iceland, Norway, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Canada and the USA the report offers, among other things, information on the total catch in the region, the export of seafood for each nation, the total catch broken down to different species by the nations, along with special a chapter on Aquaculture in relation to the North Atlantic Market.It says (wild) fishing in the North Atlantic represents about 12 per cent of total global landings and Norway is the largest fishing nation in the region, representing about 23 per cent of total regional landings. The total catch in North Atlantic waters was 10.3 million tonnes in 2011 and decreased by 7.2 per cent from previous year. The Atlantic herring is the most caught species in the North Atlantic, followed by the Atlantic cod and the Atlantic mackerel

With wild fish catches down, this is where fish farming comes in says the Islandsbanki report. “Aquaculture is an increasingly important part of the seafood industry in the North Atlantic. Norway is by far the largest producer in the region with over 80 per cent of the total aquaculture production in the North Atlantic. Norway produced 1.1 million tonnes in 2010, the majority of the production being Salmon.”The report adds: “Aquaculture accounted for 41.3 per cent of fish production in the world in 2011, a 6.2 per cent increase from 2010. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the OECD estimate that farmed fish for human consumption will outweigh caught fish by 2018 worldwide. This increase will have probable impact of the seafood market development in the North Atlantic with increasing focus on Aquaculture. “

Islandsbanki says aquaculture has grown rapidly in Norway, increasing by 600,000 MT or 100 per cent during the period from 2002 to 2011, entirely due to increased salmon production. During this period, aquaculture increased only slightly in the other North Atlantic focus countries.The value of farmed fish increased significantly during this period from a billion euros in 2002 to 4.5 billion euros in 2011, about 450 per cent jump in value.