Norway expands offshore farming areas
The Norwegian government has agreed to open up much larger areas for the development of offshore salmon farming.
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss said the government plans to change to an area-based approach rather than setting out individual locations.
Fisheries and Oceans Minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss.
The news has generally been welcomed by the aquaculture sector, which had previously criticised the government for not moving fast enough.
Some companies had hinted that unless things were speeded up, they might move across the North Sea to areas such as Shetland.
The changes are said to give operators better predictability for planning and building necessary infrastructure such as transport, service and smolt production. This requires major investments, and the regulations will help to develop offshore aquaculture into a profitable industry.
Minister Marianne Naess said: “Offshore aquaculture is a major boost, and we must choose the most competent actors.
“Therefore, we are introducing competence requirements, which will be specified in a separate regulation, together with call areas and competition requirements. We are also developing requirements for the content of the area plan.”
In the consultation, it was proposed to harmonise the salmon allocation regulations with the regulations for impact assessments. The amendment has therefore been given language that is consistent with the regulations on impact assessments.
The proposal includes two levels of impact assessments: one at the area level and one for each location.
In the consultation responses, several key stakeholders suggested there should be only one mandatory impact assessment.
This has been followed up, and the regulations now require one project-specific impact assessment that covers the entire area. This means that detailed information is mapped and collected at an earlier stage.
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