OSLO (NORWAY) – After its efforts to become the first country to try large scale breeding of a species, which is facing decline in the wild, ended in a fiasco, Norway is once again launching farms in the frigid northern waters to breed cod.
The firms breeding Atlantic cods in farms in Norway’s fjords say they have learned lessons from the bankruptcies of such farms in the early years of the millennium and the roaring success of the salmon trade which runs into billions of dollars.
They hope to reap benefits in the same manner from cod. This comes at a time when wild Atlantic cod are witnessing mixed fortunes.
Cod reserves off Iceland and in the Barents Sea are sustainable. But those in the waters near Canada, the United States, Ireland, Britain, the Baltic Sea and the non-British part of the North Sea are low.
The biggest farm Norcod is breeding 1.8 million fish and plans to begin sales in the second quarter of 2021.
“We are targeting northern and western Europe first,” said the farm’s commercial director Christian Riber, adding that US customers are expressing interest in their products.
The farm is targeting an initial yield of 6,500 tonnes in 2021, bringing it to 25,000 tonnes in 2025. That would go beyond the record 21,000 tonnes in official statistics in 2010 before the industry collapsed.
“They used wild fish for breeding and the cod was escaping by biting into the nets,” said Oeyvind Hansen of the national cod breeding programme at Nofima. It is the only research institute that works with the selective breeding of cod.
Nofima went ahead with the research into breeding cod which it has been doing since 2002-2003 funded by the ministry of fisheries. It has now raised five generations of farmed cod.
“Through selective breeding, the fish has adapted to farm life. It has become more domesticated,” said Hansen. “We have learned a lot about the biology and we have selected the fish best suited for fish farming.”
Narcod says the death rates in the pens are down to 15% and there is pretty less cannibalism and greater growth.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.