Regulatory loopholes, endangered wild salmon and suffering farmed salmon

The Norwegian aquaculture industry is a success story about salmon, growth, welfare and jobs along the coast. Norway’s second largest export industry has become a billion-dollar industry – which also increasingly threatens the environment, animal welfare and the wild salmon population.

Salmon, lice, welfare, loopholes

More cooperation between experts, politicians and other stakeholders is needed when the regulations are to be developed. Juliana Figueira Haugen says the research brings in different views, and hopes it can be of help. “Regulations do not happen in a vacuum,” she says. Photo: NTNU SHOW MORE

A new study from NTNU points to a number of challenges. The researchers interviewed stakeholders who are engaged in the salmon industry in various ways. The criticism is particularly strong of the most important tool the authorities have to regulate the aquaculture industry, namely the traffic light system. Furthermore, there are major dilemmas surrounding salmon lice, fish health and welfare. There are challenges with supervision and control, and the regulations have loopholes that can be exploited.

“What is most surprising is how everyone agrees that the current management system does not work,” say researchers Jon Olaf Olaussen and Juliana Figueira Haugen.

Understand different views on salmon farming

Olaussen is a professor at NTNU Business School, where Haugen received her PhD in December. He was her supervisor, where she interviewed 23 informants from the industry, the authorities, environmental organizations, fishermen and independent experts.

The main questions were how these different informants perceive the current regulations for salmon farming, and what improvements they believe are needed.

“The goal has been to bring out a better understanding of different views, which can contribute to increased awareness, deeper insight, bridge-building and dialogue,” Haugen says.

The study “Plague or cholera? Stakeholder perspectives on Norwegian salmon farming regulations” has been published in the journal Marine Policy.

Agreed on the problems, disagreed on the solutions

The informants agree on many of the problems, but disagree on which solutions are best. Anglers, environmental organizations and some representatives from the authorities are in favour of stricter regulation. They are concerned about the environment and generally more sceptical about the aquaculture industry.

The researchers have extracted 5 main themes from the interviews:

• The traffic light system – the most important aquaculture regulation today
• Combating salmon lice in relation to the welfare of farmed salmon
• Challenges with supervision, control, and loopholes in the regulations
• Lack of policies that support technological innovation.
• Perceptions about the industry and the need for more collaboration

Allows up to 30 per cent mortality

The criticism is strongest against the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries’ traffic light scheme.

“The biggest problem is that the system is based on salmon lice as the only factor. Many of our informants believe that escapes, mortality, discharges of nutrients and diseases must be included,” says Juliana Haugen.

Plague or cholera?

Red circles: All aquaculture sites in Norway as of 14 February 2025. The map also shows the 13 production areas. Green means acceptable environmental impact, yellow means moderate environmental impact, and red implies unacceptable environmental impact. Map/source: Directorate of Fisheries SHOW MORE

Parasitic salmon lice threaten both farmed salmon and wild salmon. Lice have become resistant to drugs, and mechanical or thermal delousing has become more common. The first removes lice by flushing or brushing. The other exposes the fish to hot water to get the lice to let go.

Representatives from environmental organizations call these “torture methods”. A representative from a government agency described the choice between controlling the amount of lice to protect wild salmon or protecting the welfare of farmed salmon “a bit like choosing between plague and cholera”.

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Accepting high mortality rates for salmon

Using what are called “cleaner fish,” or a species of fish that eat lice directly from the salmon is gentler on the farmed salmon, but not the cleaner fish. These fish have an even higher mortality rate than farmed salmon. An informant from the authorities acknowledges that the use of cleaner fish is not acceptable, but describes the situation as being trapped in a no-man’s-land where it’s impossible to stop the use of the fish.

Last year, 57.8 million farmed salmon died in the sea phase (in Norwegian), for  a mortality rate of 15.4 per cent. The figures are based on what the fish farmers themselves report to the Directorate of Fisheries. The highest mortality rate was over 24 per cent, the lowest at 4.1.  Many of the informants in the NTNU study are strongly concerned about the welfare of the farmed fish, and some of them are resigned because they believe such a high mortality rate would hardly have been accepted in other livestock industries. Others are frustrated that, despite large losses of fish, fish farmers continue to reap large profits.

What is most surprising is how everyone agrees that the current management system does not work

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Little concrete white paper on aquaculture

In the white paper “Future aquaculture – sustainable growth and food for the world” (in Norwegian), the Government acknowledges that the current regulations do not promote sustainable operations. The compromise in the Storting on June 12 ended with few concrete measures, Olaussen said.

“The study does not say what needs to be changed, but shows the challenges and the need to change the regulations,” says Professor Jon Olaf Olaussen. Photo: NTNU SHOW MORE

Originally, a tax on lost fish, so-called wastage, and a new quota system for the discharge of salmon lice larvae, were proposed.

“After the deliberations in the Storting, all that is left is that more committees will be set up and there will be further investigations. In any case, the proposed emissions trading regime will take a very long time to put in place. Nor does it solve the fundamental problem of controlling production by lice to such a large extent,” Olaussen said.

Besides, Norway doesn’t have time to waste, he said. Native stocks of wild Atlantic salmon are on the Red List of threatened and endangered species, large numbers of cleaner fish and farmed salmon die every year, and discharges from the farms are released directly into the sea.

Billion-dollar industry based on trust

The researchers point out that quotas require both good counting and a completely different control regime. So far, Norway has not achieved either. The informants say that there are no resources to check the numbers the industry itself reports for lice, the number of salmon in the cages, and escapes.

“Then it doesn’t matter what kind of management system we have. If it is not followed up with monitoring and control, things will get out of control. We have got a management system based on pure trust. We actually have a billion-dollar industry with a large environmental footprint that is managed in this way. It’s unusual, and history shows that it doesn’t work,” says Olaussen.

Politics, sticks and carrots

The stakeholders in the study agree that technological advances, such as closed fish farming facilities to limit direct discharges, will determine how sustainable the industry can become. These stakeholder believe that politics must support more innovation, but they also support different approaches to solving the problem.

“More informants want more carrots, while representatives of fishermen, environmentalists and some from the authorities typically want more orders, bans and sticks,” Haugen said.

Reference:
Juliana Figueira Haugen, Jon Olaf Olaussen: “Plague or cholera? Stakeholder perspectives on Norwegian salmon farming regulations” Marine Policy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2025.106685