Into the wild – where they don’t belong
29 September 2023
A few thousand aquaculture salmon are suspected to have escaped from sea pens in Patreksfjörður, located in the northwest of Iceland, and have made it into Icelandic rivers. Experts are concerned that they could mix with Icelandic wild salmon and call it an environmental disaster, which many have warned about for years. The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority has requested an official investigation of Arctic Sea Farm, a company that runs several sea pens in the Icelandic Westfjords, regarding alleged legal violations on fish farming.
 | Þorgerður Anna Gunnarsdóttir Norwegian aquaculture experts have travelled to Iceland in order to try and reduce the damage by catching the fish. Fishermen fishing salmon in the Icelandic rivers have also been asked to be hypervigilant and report any suspected farmed salmon that they catch. Salmon farming in sea pens has become more controversial in the past years due to various environmental issues, from the spreading of diseases to frequent escapes and mixing with wild salmon. To this end, salmon farming on land has been introduced as a possible alternative that poses less environmental problems. Land-based fish farming is on the rise as an industry in Iceland, but whether that will phase out sea farming is unclear. |
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