Tag: fisheries

58 million salmon died in Norwegian fish farms last year

In 2022, 58 million salmon died in Norwegian fish farms, an increase of one million salmon from the previous year.

Norwegian and Swedish researchers completely disagree about pike

Is pike a useful or harmful species? A new study is sounding the alarm that there are too few predatory fish in the Baltic Sea.

Can fish drown?

ASK A RESEARCHER: Fish can actually drown both on land and in water.

This shark postpones having sex until it is over 100 years old

Not that strange perhaps, now that we know how long the mysterious Greenland shark can live.

Fatty acid composition in the salmon fillet can be measured in seconds

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Norwegian farmed salmon is a good source of the healthy fatty acids, found in fatty fish.

Ground rent: Norway’s new salmon tax turns economic textbook models into reality

The Norwegian Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum believes the introduction of a salmon tax will equalize differences between Norwegians. But some economists warn against unintended consequences.

Herring roe will be used in medicine to treat psoriasis

Medicines are not just chemistry - many come from animals and plants.

Electric fence against salmon lice

An electric fence keeps the salmon healthy. But we will never find a lasting solution to salmon lice, says one researcher.

Farmed salmon need zinc to avoid getting sick. But zinc in the ocean harms the environment

Either farmed fish health or the environment suffers.

Government report raises fish-farm alarm: "Things are not going well for the Norwegian farmed salmon"

Last year, 54 million salmon died in Norwegian fish farms in the sea.

Researchers tracked a bluefin tuna’s 15 000 kilometre swim across the Atlantic and back

A 250 kilo Atlantic bluefin tuna had a satellite tag attached to its back in the autumn of 2020. A year later, the researchers located the same tuna again outside Florø, Norway’s westernmost town. It had swum the equivalent of more than a third of the way around the equator.

Fish in the Arctic deformed by tiny amounts of oil contamination

Polar cod are very sensitive to crude oil contamination, a new study shows.

How healthy and climate friendly is Norwegian farmed salmon?

Swedish researchers have assessed one of Norways most important export products, farmed salmon, in a new report.

Noise caused sea lice to eat and reproduce less

This parasite costs Norwegian salmon farming almost 500 million euros each year. Could noise be the solution? Sound-emitting speakers weaken the lice's appetite. They fall off more easily and their reproduction drops dramatically, according to experiments in a Norwegian fjord.

This fish grunts when it is ready to have sex

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Have you ever lain on a seafront jetty fishing, perhaps with a cracked mussel on the hook? Then you have probably seen this colourful little fellow, the corkwing wrasse. The next time you see it, you should also prick up your ears

Controversial CRISPR-method used to make farmed salmon sterile

Gene editing using CRISPR is much debated globally but used in several projects in Norway. “This is not a single method”, says researcher Dorothy Dankel, comparing its diversity to surgery.

These measures can slow lice infestations on farmed salmon

A study of nearly 50 million salmon over six years shows that cleaner fish can delay lice infestations at salmon farms — if there are enough of the cleaner fish. As a result, fish farms could reduce the number of delousing procedures.

Food fraud: Do you really know what fish species you are eating?

When you buy fish from a store, or when you are served a fish dish in a restaurant, you expect to get what the label says or to eat what you ordered. Unfortunately, the reality is sometimes far from expectations.

Who cares about pellet saithe?

There’s one thing we can say about men from Northern Norway that are over 60: They sure care about pellet saithe. And not just a little – they care about it in a way that is statistically more significant than everyone else in Norway.

Norwegian fish farmers reprimanded for poor treatment of cleaner fish

The aquaculture industry doesn’t do a good enough job supervising the use of cleaner fish, and many die. Unless the industry does a better job documenting the welfare of cleaner fish, it will need to stop using them, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority states in new report.

Matured cheese and ham - yes please, but what about matured clipfish?

A Norwegian google search for "matured food" displays results for balsamic vinegar, cured meat, fermented trout and many types of cheese. Why isn’t clipfish on the list?

Salmon in pain when warm water is used as delousing treatment

Salmon are briefly immersed in warm water so the lice lose their grip. The treatment is the most common non-chemical delousing method used at Norwegian fish farms. But its imminent ban comes as new research reveals the pain and injury to the salmon.

Every year, 50 million cleaner fish die in Norwegian fish farms

“Would we tolerate the same mortality in other animals?” one veterinarian from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority asked at a recent conference on salmon lice.

Norwegian salmon is a huge success story – but could it get even bigger?

The salmon industry creates thousands of jobs along the coast. Its export value is twice that of all other Norwegian fish combined. Could more unique products add even more value?

Trout may be dining on lots of lemmings

You see a lemming swimming on the surface of the water. Then it disappears. What happened?

Feeding the future’s farmed salmon

One of the biggest critiques of farmed salmon is that their feed is made from raw materials that could be eaten by humans. Norwegian scientists are working to make fish food from trees and leftovers from the food industry.

'Fish welfare should be a criterion for obtaining new aquaculture concessions'

If fish mortality affects the bottom line, preventing mortality will be given more priority, says fish welfare researcher Tore Kristiansen.

How scientists discovered salmon that need less food to grow

Norwegian researchers have identified young salmon that can be farmed using less feed than their not-as-efficient brethren.

Would you like salt fish or klippfisk for dinner today?

That’s really something you should have thought of yesterday or even the day before.

Salmon get their sense of direction from mum

Offspring are twice as likely to find their way home if their mother was wild.

It matters who your mother is, even for fish

OPINION: New research could result in both bigger and better farmed fish.

How cod took over in the icy Arctic waters

Codfish can eat prey right up under the sea ice in winter, thanks to an antifreeze in their blood.

How healthy is farmed salmon?

Is farmed salmon as healthy to eat as wild salmon? And what about the health of the fish themselves?

Can salmon lice end up on your dinner plate?

Are there any parasites on the fish you buy in the store?

Sports drinks from fish heads

In a couple of years you might drink some fish parts after exercising at a gym.

Goby behaviour says much about sexual selection

One fish off the coast of central Norway has set a record for the number of female mates it had. And that’s not all.

Here comes the electric fishing boat

The world’s first electrically powered fishing boat will be presented this August in Trondheim, Norway. But more time and development is needed before it can run completely without diesel.

An in-trawl camera for fish

A cod swims right past the camera. These images could make it easier to set fishing quotas.

Super salmon training starts early

Healthier, stronger, bigger: this is a goal for Norwegian farm-raised salmon—and Harald Takle is their personal trainer.

Scientists shock cod to gauge pain

Tests on Atlantic cod could lead to a discovery of whether fish simply react to harmful stimuli or actually feel pain much as we do.

Fish in drug-tainted water see some benefits

Swedish freshwater perch have been seen to thrive in water contaminated by anti-anxiety medications. Researchers think most studies, which look solely at the negative aspects of pharmaceutical pollution, could be missing some perks for perch.

Wild salmon can adapt to climate change

Atlantic salmon are more capable of withstanding temperature changes than scientists had thought.

Missing link found on sharks

On any visit to a rocky seashore, you are likely to spot barnacles, unoffendingly stuck to hard surfaces. But barnacles in a fjord in Norway have become parasites that eat fish through feeding stems.

Why Japanese connoisseurs love Norwegian mackerel

There's nothing fishy about it: an advanced MRI machine explains exactly why the Japanese prefer Norwegian mackerel. The secret is in the fat.

Fish choose a collision course

Flying insects steer away from objects to avoid collisions, but fish swim toward them at full speed.

Fishing: Big increase in catch-and-release

Anglers have in the last few years become steadily more likely to release their catches after reeling them in. Most of these fish survive the ordeal, but it is far from painless.

Puffin chicks die of hunger

For seven years now, Atlantic puffins have been abandoning chicks and eggs in their nesting colonies because they cannot find enough food. The ocean is teeming with mackerel which consume the small fish that puffins normally feed to their offspring.

Farmed salmon are as fertile as wild salmon

The sperm from farmed male salmon are just as likely as the sperm of wild salmon to succeed in fertilising wild salmon eggs, experiments have shown. Researchers recommend that farmed salmon be made sterile.

More fish found deeper in the ocean

The amount of fish in the world is being reassessed upwards. Some ten billion tonnes of fish that live at depths down to a kilometre are not fished at all. A University of Bergen professor thinks this biomass will be much more important for humankind in the future.

Respiratory problems plague king crab workers

Preliminary figures show that workers who process red king crabs have higher than average problems with coughing and wheezing.

Tourism cannot sustain North Norway

Norwegian national planners have a tendency to tout the importance of tourism for northern Norway. But tourism does not necessarily make a local community in the North more vigorous.

Spawning cod packed with vitamins

Cod migrate from the Barents Sea to the Lofoten Islands in North Norway to spawn every winter. The fishing season for these large spawning cod, called skrei in Norwegian, is currently open. A traditional North Norwegian serving of the fish is a super source of vitamin D.

Clumsy clown of the seabed

The spiny lumpsucker is too sluggish to avert the slow hand of a diver, yet it manages to catch some of the most important swimmers in the Arctic Ocean.

Salmon are shrewder in a natural environment

Juvenile fish get some smarts after spending eight weeks in a more stimulating tank.

Valuable secret hidden in codfish ear collection

Cod have annual growth rings in the bony structures in their ears. Scientists in Greenland have collected these structures for nearly a century and have made a discovery that could help avert a new fisheries collapse.

Creatures from the deep and cold Atlantic sea

Check out what swims around a thousand metres down off Greenland.

Soviet Cold War oceanographic surveys opened up to western scientists

A treasure trove of Barents Sea fisheries data stored for decades in Murmansk can help determine the fate of future offshore oil and gas exploitation in the region.

Larger offspring when fish pick own mates

It might not be so advantageous for us to help endangered animal species by selecting what we consider suitable mates for them.

A cold cure for sick fish

When pipefish are sick, they swim towards cooler water to get better. But what will happen when global warming causes the world's seas to heat up?

Want some week-old fish?

Most of us would refrain from buying fresh fish that was caught more than three days ago. But if we don’t know the day of catch, we gladly consume fish that is much older.

Standard research fish lacks a standard diet

Zebrafish have been used as a research standard to help scientists expand our understanding of everything from skin cancers to cardiovascular disease. But one Norwegian researcher cautions that research that relies on zebrafish might be less reliable because the fish are not fed a standardised diet.

Organic salmon has more Omega-3

A small share of Norwegian farmed salmon is produced organically. The organic product has the same quality as other farmed salmon, but has more Omega-3.

Prospecting herring waste

The messy leftovers from herring processing could be put to better use. Enzymes from the fish parts can soon wind up in detergents or even in juice.

Creating sterile farmed fish

Fish spend a great deal of energy in sexual maturation and the aquaculture industry would like to avoid that by raising sterile fish. This would also prevent runaway farmed fish from mixing their genes with wild cousins. Norwegian researchers are on the case.