Rightly located salmon and trout farming in the sea is a huge succes. The fish are cultured under good conditions and with a very low impact on the environment. Consumers love the products, which are very healthy and tasty to the extent, that the market has increased by 7 % for more han 25 years.
Still modernism has it’s reactionary enemies, which are coming up with foolish schemes of growing salmon in high densities in expensive cement tanks on land. About as foolish as trying to produce pigs in the sea.
For this reason, I have got a letter published in Fish Farming International, which warns naive investors not to lose their shirts in such ventures. See attached ffisalmononland
And my full conclusion:
The bulk of ongrowing of large salmonoids will in the foreseeable future take place in cages in the sea. This production method can thoroughly trash any landbased farming from an economic point of view, and is more sustainable than landbased farming because of the very low energy demand. RAS systems and other landbased systems has a great future for other purposes, but not for ongrowing of salmon. It is harmful to the industry, that companies and half-baked researchers with vested interests in selling equipment and research project are hyping RAS systems for salmon. The industry should become organized and agree on realistic ways for jointly furthering our aims.
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