Norway reveals plans for river trap system to protect wild salmon

Norway reveals plans for river trap system to protect wild salmon

Source: theguardian

10/21/2021

Credit: Ann and Steve Toon/Alamy

Norway is to introduce new traps to protect wild salmon after experts warned they could become endangered as a result of contact with their farmed counterparts.

Farmed fish and non-native pink salmon carry various diseases and lice, and in recent years have spread from Russia across the Norwegian coastline, reaching Britain and mainland Europe.

The Norwegian climate and environment ministry has pledged 15m Norwegian kroner (£1.3m) for install river traps in the country’s northernmost region of Finnmark, as well as to enclosing all coastal fish farms by 2030.

The announcement coincides with the publication of a new report by the Scottish government that shows open-pen fish farms in the Highlands constitute a significant risk to the wild salmon population due to crossbreeding and an increase in parasites.

According to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, the global population of Atlantic salmon fell by more than half since 1983 because of overfishing, habitat destruction by hydropower plants and the spread of salmon lice, among other factors.