A new study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) points to a number of challenges. The researchers have 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.

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 concerned their perceptions of 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," says Juliana Haugen.

The study "Plague or cholera? Stakeholder perspectives on Norwegian salmon farming regulations" is published in the journal Marine Policy.

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 favor 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

The criticism is strongest against the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries' traffic light scheme. The traffic light scheme divides Norway into 13 zones for salmon and trout farming.
Each zone is assigned a traffic light every other year.

• Green zones: Sea lice are estimated to cause less than 10% mortality in wild salmon. Up to 6% growth in production is allowed.

• Yellow zones: Mortality is estimated at 10–30%, and production can continue as before.

• Red zones: It is likely that more than 30% of wild salmon die due to lice. Companies may be required to reduce production by up to 6%. Those who can demonstrate low lice levels may apply for exemptions – even in red zones.

"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.

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".

Using cleaner fish that eat lice directly from the salmon is more gentle, but not for 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 being trapped in a no-man's-land where use of cleaner fish cannot be stopped either.

Last year, 57.8 million farmed salmon died in the sea phase (in Norwegian), giving 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 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, the aquaculture industry continue sto reap large profits.

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

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, according to Jon Olaf Olaussen.

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 further investigated. 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, the NTNU professor believes.

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.

The researchers point out that quotas require both good counting and a completely different control regime. So far, we have 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 quite unusual, and history shows that it doesn't work," says Olaussen.

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.