Norway’s Fisheries Minister Per Sandberg has said that the fishing and oil industries must learn to live together.
The two sectors have been at loggerheads for a number of years, with skippers and vessel owners complaining that the energy industry with its seismic drilling and explosions is endangering the marine environment, damaging fish stocks as well as disrupting their fishing activities. The situation has been particularly bad in the north of the country, around Lofoten.
Last year all six municipalities in the northern Lofoten region of the country have said to drilling in areas where there is fishing activity.
Norway is now one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers and more field are being discovered all the time which is leading to intensive exploration and an increase in the number of platforms. The exploration is also moving further north into the more productive fishing grounds.
The Minister, who was speaking at a fisheries meeting, said co-existence between the two sectors in the years ahead was very important because as mineral exploration increased and wind turbine farms were built new challenges would arise on Norway’s coastal shelf. He said dialogue between the two had improved, but added there was still room for more co-operation.
He also pointed out that oil technology was providing opportunities for vast ocean netpens and entire farms offshore.
But Sandberg spoke of a bright future for Norway’s seafood industry. He said: The quality of Norwegian seafood is high and the world wants it. Norway now exports 61 different species of fish and there is scope to increase that figure.
2017 FISHupdate