Salmon farming faces fierce opposition both home and abroad
Aside from both originating on America’s west coast, the Californian outdoor clothing firm Patagonia and Seattle rock band Pearl Jam do not immediately appear to have much in common.
Until, that is, you become aware of their vocal opposition to Iceland’s new aquaculture bill, which has just had its first reading in the country’s parliament, the Althing.
On the face of it Iceland’s new aquaculture bill did not appear fertile ground for controversy. Its declared aim is to provide a single unified regulatory framework to apply to all aquaculture activities carried out in the country, including open-net / sea-cage farming, land-based farming, offshore aquaculture and fjord farming.
Iceland’s Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries, Hanna Katrin Fridriksson, has said that the bill is also aimed at reducing negative environmental impacts.
And there lies the source of the friction, generating the heat. While Iceland’s aquaculture industry is becoming increasingly important to the economy, opinion polls have shown widespread opposition to open net salmon farming, a major part of the sector, with 65% of Icelanders reportedly opposed.
For the international record, Patagonia, founded by US billionaire and avid salmon fly fisherman Yvon Chouinard, has actively battled the salmon farming industry for several years. Pearl Jam, meanwhile, has been environmentally active since it came into being in 1990. Icelandic artist Björk, incidentally, has also been another high-profile opponent of salmon farming.
They and others back support of the wild salmon sector, which they contend is being put at risk from pollution and contamination from the sea farming and is not in any case ultimately sustainable.
While the bill did propose changes to open net farming, including greater incentives for the use of closed containment systems and sterile salmon, as well as increased monitoring in rivers and the introduction of disease-control zones, none of it had a noticeable impact in reducing the criticism which followed the publication of the draft of the bill back in January.
Among several organisations, the Atlantic Salmon Trust highlighted the harm caused to wild Atlantic salmon by open pen salmon farming and urged policymakers in Iceland to adopt an immediate moratorium on the expansion of open pen salmon farming, enforce stronger regulation of sea lice, escapes and disease emanating from existing salmon farms immediately, and commit to a transition away from open pen production to zero emissions production methods.
The AST said: “Iceland now has an opportunity to be a world-leader in legislating for more sustainable aquaculture practices, and to afford wild Atlantic salmon the protection they deserve. We urge the government of Iceland to seize this opportunity and help forge a brighter path for wild salmon.”
The bill, perhaps modified during its passage through the Althing, is likely to have been passed into Icelandic law before IceFish 2026 is held in Kópavogur just outside the island’s capital Reykjavík from 22-24 September.
What is a certainty, however, is that its very existence, along with any regulatory and other changes, will be a hot topic of discussion at the biannual gathering. Watch this space!
For more information and to book your delegate pass, visit the IceFish Conferences website here
