BERGEN, Norway (Reuters) - Norway has built the world’s biggest salmon-farming industry. But it wants to go bigger. With their lucrative oil fields now in decline, Norwegians have ambitious plans for aquaculture to power their economy far into the future.
Georg Baunach co-founder of Hatch, an accelerator that supports aquaculture startups, poses in Bergen, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneMealworms are pictured at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneWater is pumped from the Sognefjord to a halibut farm owned by the Glitne company in Bjordal, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA halibut farm owned by the Glitne company in Bjordal, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA stream outside Bjordal in Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA halibut farm owned by the Glitne company in Bjordal, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneThe greenhouse of CO2Bio is seen in front of the oil refinery in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneCylinders incubate tiny salmon in the hatchery at the Cargill research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA view of ocean water in Stavanger, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneNina Liland, scientist for the Aquafly project at the Institute of Marine Research investigates how insects can be used to make feed for Norway's salmon farms, in Bergen, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA trout farm belonging to the Norwegian seafood company Leroy is seen near the village of Tepstad in Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneAn open mussel shell in the west of Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneManaging Director Svein Nordvik of CO2Bio walks by the company's greenhouse in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA trout is held at a farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneAlgae grows in a transparent tube at a greenhouse run by Norwegian startup CO2Bio, which cultures the organisims using carbon dioxide piped from an adjacent oil refinery, in Mongstad, Norway July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad in Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneCargill's research centre is seen in the waters near the village of Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA salmon swims in a tank at the Cargill research centre in Dirdal, Norway August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA worker nets trout at trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA lifebuoy is seen in front of boats in Stavanger harbour, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneSalmon raised in a laboratory are seen in a temporary holding container before being dissected at the Cargill research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA worker holds a net of salmon above a temporary holding tank at Cargill's research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA halibut is caught at a halibut farm owned by the Glitne company in Bjordal, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA salmon with a label attached is seen at the Cargill research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA salmon leaps from the water at Cargill's research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneFish nets are monitored using a computer at a trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA worker holds pellets of fish feed at a trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA trout swims at a trout farm belonging to Leroy, a Norwegian seafood company, near the village of Tepstad, Norway, July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneSea lice, parasites slowing the expansion of Norway's salmon-farming industry, are seen in a Petri dish at Cargill's research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA sea louse, one of the parasites slowing the expansion of Norway's salmon-farming industry, is held by a researcher at Cargill's research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneAlgae grow in transparent tubes at a greenhouse run by Norwegian startup CO2Bio, which cultures the organisms using carbon dioxide piped from an adjacent oil refinery, in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneA researcher looks through a microscope at Cargill's research centre in Dirdal, Norway, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneNina Liland, a scientist for the Aquafly project at the Institute of Marine Research investigates how insects can be used to make feed for Norway's salmon farms, in Bergen, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneAlgae grow in transparent tubes at a greenhouse run by Norwegian startup CO2Bio, which cultures the organisms using carbon dioxide piped from an adjacent oil refinery, in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneManaging Director Svein Nordvik of CO2Bio poses at the company's greenhouse in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh KilcoyneSvein Nordvik, managing director of Norwegian startup CO2Bio, inspects algae growing in transparent tubes at a greenhouse in Mongstad, Norway, July 31, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Climate change could make those dreams harder to realize. Salmon feed is based on fishmeal, produced by grinding up wild-caught fish. With warming waters and ocean acidification pushing underwater ecosystems to the breaking point, Big Aquaculture is seeking ways to feed fish that aren’t hostage to increasingly unpredictable seas.
“Feed has a couple of bottlenecks: We’re still using marine resources, for example fishmeal and fish oil, to then put into fish. This is not necessarily sustainable in the long term,” said Georg Baunach, co-founder of Hatch, an accelerator focused on supporting aquaculture startups. “And that’s why we need innovation in feed.”
Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and scientists are racing to identify alternatives, turning the Norwegian cities of Bergen and Stavanger into a Silicon Valley of the Sea. Spending on research and development in Norway’s aquaculture sector increased by 30 percent to 2.3 billion kroner, or $275 million, between 2013 and 2015, according to official data quoted by Hatch, as startups and research institutes raced to develop disruptive new technologies.
The innovators aren’t short of ideas. At Norway’s biggest oil refinery, a startup called CO2Bio is harnessing greenhouse gases to culture algae that can then be harvested as a sustainable source of fish feed. At the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, the Aquafly project is investigating whether black soldier flies fed on waste products from the food industry or the seaweed growing off Norway’s coast could be another viable feed ingredient.
“The insects are also part of this whole circular economy, where instead of throwing away things you would reuse and recycle and upcycle,” said Nina Liland, one of the Aquafly researchers. “Potentially you could use food waste from households to produce insects that could be used for fish feeds: That would be an optimal scenario.”
Various companies are working on projects to recycle more of the vast amounts of waste dumped into the sea by Norway’s aquaculture industry into products such as biogas or fertilizer. Researchers are also looking for ways to combat the sea lice parasites that thrive in salmon cages, which are a major brake on the industry’s plans to expand.
Time may not be on the fish farmers’ side. With climate change projected to intensify in the coming decades, the challenge will be to turn promising new ideas into viable projects fast enough to shield their dreams of a prosperous future from the growing turmoil at sea.
