Responsible: Thorleifur Agustsson IRIS, Norway
The case study in the North Sea will focus on the coastal region in Rogaland county. Currently there are there are two main Atlantic salmon farming companies operating in this area: Marine Harvest and Grieg Seafood. There has been growth in salmon production in Rogaland in recent years and it has now reached more than 50,000 tons per year. Rogaland county is hosting companies operating throughout the value chain from salmon eggs to salmon feed, in addition to the important research related to sustainability within salmon farming and for development of feed for salmon. In addition to salmon aquaculture, in the region there is also production of oysters, scallops, sea urchins, lumpfish and lobster, as well as kelp.
The county council has established a regional aquaculture strategy where the main goal is to double the production volume of farmed salmon within 2020; at the same time the industry has a strong focus on developing environmentally friendly and sustainable production, to achieve a growth in volume (Taranger et al., 2015). In the Rogaland region, there is an increasing number of stakeholders linked to the use of the coastal areas, such as recreational activities, transport, tourism, local fisheries, Oil & Gas related services, as well as protected areas.
The work package will identify coastal areas in the Rogaland county where areas of conflict between aquaculture and other stakeholders are present, and areas where there is a possibility for the aquaculture industry to grow. Preliminary environmental impact assessment evaluations will be performed to establish where the production could be increased (both for old and new sites); in this evaluation the main focus will be on the local and regional impact of organic load and nutrients from marine salmon farms. The feasibility for use of novel methods involving rapid detection techniques to analyse environmental impact will be assessed in conjunction with WP 3.