Emergency meeting with the minister

An emergency meeting was held yesterday at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries in order to discuss the genetic mixing of farmed salmon with wild Atlantic salmon. Gunnar Örn Petersen, director of the National Federation of Fishing Societies, says he hopes that the Minister of Food, Agrculture and Fisheries will act immediately on the situation.

Article on Iceland Monitor

A lot of farmed salmon in Blanda river

“We are about to meet the minister of food and the ministry’s staff, even earlier, though it would have been. Things are only getting worse every day because of this farmed salmon fishery that is going on,” Petersen told mbl.is yesterday.

“We hope that the government’s response will be clear and will come up with a direct response to what is happening now,” Petersen stated, adding that it is no exaggeration that it is an emergency meeting.

Want to stop fish farming at sea

A significant amount of farmed salmon has been found in Iceland’s rivers lately. For example, nine farmed salmon were caught from the salmon ladder in Blanda on Sunday.

Petersen says that the situation in the country’s rivers needs to be addressed immediately. He says that this is normally done at the expense of those who have lost farmed salmon from their sea cages. It takes a lot of effort to get the fish from the rivers to avoid genetic mixing.

“It’s not a method, however, that we admit as being usable in the long run. All the fish cannot be caught. These are not countermeasures that justify the possibility of continuing the farming salmon at sea,” says Petersen.