Norway’s Salmon Farming Dilemma (Encore) : State of the World from NPR

Norway is the largest exporter of salmon in the world. And while some of those fish are wild-caught, many are raised in “fish farms”- large cylindrical pens made of nylon in the open water. Sometimes these farmed fish escape, mixing with the local population and causing ecological issues. In a story we first brought you in October, we see farmed fish in a Norwegian fjord and hear about potential solutions to the problem.

A pilot project run by the salmon farming company Eide Fjordbruck is a closed pen tank that holds 200,000 salmon. The closed pen protects the salmon from sea lice and prevents the salmon inside from escaping and interbreeding with wild salmon. The waste of the salmon is transported to a biogas tank, where its used to make energy.

Rob Schmitz/NPR

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Rob Schmitz/NPR

A pilot project run by the salmon farming company Eide Fjordbruck is a closed pen tank that holds 200,000 salmon. The closed pen protects the salmon from sea lice and prevents the salmon inside from escaping and interbreeding with wild salmon. The waste of the salmon is transported to a biogas tank, where its used to make energy.

Rob Schmitz/NPR