During the National Science Week (Forskningsdagene) Paul Wassmann from Arctic SIZE was asked to participate in a panel debate about the significance of fish farming. Wassmann took an ecological point of view and compared salmon biomass with that of the biomass of humans in Norway. With the anticipated increase in fish farming along the Norwegian coast the untreated discharge of nutrients by salmon farming can become 20 times greater than that of humans. However, dilution is highly significant and the solution of the solution of pollution is dilution. The local and regional impact of fish farming can thus be small, provided that one would know the carrying capacity for nutrients and increased biomass and the hydrodynamics of the Norwegian coastal zone in sufficient detail. However, this is not the case, but adequate insights are potentially available should Norway wish to get hold of this knowledge. A constructive and informative debate followed the three invited talks.
The panel: From left to right Professor Paul Wassmann, Institutt for arktisk og marin biologi, Tor Nygaard, Styreleder Arnøylaks and Professor Terje Vassdal, Handelshøgskolen i Tromsø