With salmon prices rising around the world, Japan and Norway are using state-of-the-art technology for two huge offshore aquaculture projects in a effort to boost salmon supply while avoiding the problems that plague coastal fish farms, reports Japan Times.
“SalMar ASA, a Norwegian fish farmer with a foothold in Japan … will build a floating pen 20 km off Trondelag, a central region of Norway, in October to raise 10,000 tons of salmon per year,” the paper says. In an effort to avoid the problem of sea lice, which have hampered coastal operations, “SalMar will raise salmon at depths of 100 to 300 meters in the floating pen, which will have a manned control room at the center to feed fish by monitoring their movements via an underwater camera.”
Norway, a major exporter of salmon, invested in the offshore project after a “sea lice epidemic” cut its production in half in 2015. Per Sandberg, the country’s fisheries and coastal affairs minister, told the Times they hope to increase farmed salmon production to “5 million tons by 2050 from 1.3 million in 2016.”
In 2016, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co. launched an offshore demonstration project in Japan, raising coho salmon at a depth of 15 meters. The first batch of salmon was harvested in March.
“Prices of salmon are rising due to the growing popularity of sushi in the United States, Europe and Asia outside Japan, as well as poor catches,” says the Times.