Iceland ‘should embrace open sea farming’

ICELAND has the potential to almost triple its salmon production target if it develops open sea fish farming, a leading authority on aquaculture has suggested.

The current government approved target is 50,000 tonnes a year, mostly carried out at traditional coastal or fjord based farms, although production is still well short of that figure.

However, aquaculture consultant Friðrik Sigurðsson, who works for the Norwegian seafood development company INAQ, has told Morgunbladid, Iceland’s main newspaper, the country can eventually produce far more than that if companies are prepared to go further out to sea.

He suggested salmon could be bred in huge vessels that are able to withstand strong waves, adding that such craft were already in use off Norway and were delivering some promising results.

Open sea farming had many advantages over other methods including less risk of lice and pollution, he said. But it was also more expensive because cages needed to be stronger.