Reykjavík Grapevine


Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2017, Blaðsíða 12

Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2017, Blaðsíða 12
Visit any supermarket in Iceland, and in the cold meats section you will in- variably see fillets of smoked salmon and trout for sale. Some of it may have been caught in the wild, but a lot of it has been farmed. Fish farming is a rela- tively new concept in Iceland, but it’s an industry that is trying to grow, with the promise that it could bring hundreds of jobs to certain areas of Iceland. While the production would market itself by capitalising on the country’s image as a pristine natural paradise, it could in re- ality spark an ecological crisis, causing irreparable damage to one of the oldest parts of Iceland’s tourism industry. To find out which direction the pro- ject may go, we need to learn from how aquaculture (as fish farming is more accurately referred to), has played out in other parts of the world. Through re- search and talking to those connected to this fishing technology, Grapevine has learned that the touted benefits of aquaculture may be outweighed by the environmental and financial conse- quences. Big fish, little fish, swimming in the water Salmon is farmed at the highest rate in Iceland, and it has been growing rapidly. Iceland farmed 292 tonnes of salmon in 2008. Four years later, the country was farming ten times that amount. In 2016, Iceland more than doubled that amount, producing about 8,000 tonnes. Plans are currently in the works to increase the number to 10,000 tonnes, which could translate to anywhere from 100 to 230 new jobs in the West- fjords region. Snorri Björn Sigurðsson, the Direc- tor of Development for the Icelandic Regional Development Institute, be- lieves this expansion is crucial to the livelihood of people living in the West- fjords. "Aquaculture has had the biggest effect on the southern Westfjords, because there has been the greatest decrease in jobs there, and with it a decrease in people,” he told us. “The decline has been tremendous, some- thing around 30%, as would be the case if it were a war zone." Indeed, even the Westfjords’ largest municipality, Ísafjörður, has lost about 1,000 residents between 1998 and 2017, according to Statistics Iceland. While the Westfjords has also been consist- ently one of the most employed area of Iceland for many years, areas like the town Tálknafjörður showed an un- employment rate of 7.5% in June 2017, which is well above the national aver- age of 1.9%. Other municipalities in the region have had similar rates of unem- ployment in the recent past, but have since recovered. It only takes one One need only read reports, stretching from Chile to America’s Pacific North- west to Norway, to see that aquacul- ture is anything but a green industry. It only takes one fish escaping from a pen to have devastating impacts on local wild stocks. This damage can be done in the form of muddying the genetic balance of the stocks, or introducing diseases such as fish lice to the wild. Even Alaska, a state that has looked the other way when it comes to the envi- ronmental damage of oil drilling, has outright banned salmon farming. Why should it be any different for Iceland, a country that prides itself on the im- maculate conditions of its natural en- vironments? “I think that of course people need Words: Paul Fontaine Photos: Adobe Stock Share this: gpv.is/ml14 Fish Farming: New Opportunities, Old Dangers The environmental impacts may outweigh financial gains ANALYSIS Fish farming in Súgandafjörður - Photo by Tabor / Adobe Stock First Æg isg arð ur Gei rsg ata Geirsgata No rð ur stí gu r Nýlendugata Mýrargata Hlé sga ta Rastargata Vesturgata Miðbakki Suðurgata Ægi sga rðu r Ægi sga rðu r TICKET OFFICE WHALE SAFARI Re yk jav ík O ld H arb ou r str and gat a HOF Lundargata Fró ðas und Eið Gra nuf elag sga ta Hofsbot Brekkugata Hafnarstræ ti ave gu rOd dag ata Skipagata G rerárgata Grundargata eyjargata TICKET OFFICE WHALE SAFARI #CLOSERTONATURE • #THEULTIMATEWHALEWATCHING • #WHALESAFARI +354 497 0000 • WHALESAFARI.IS • INFO@WHALESAFARI.IS THE ULTIMATE WHALE WATCHING TOURS FROM REYKJAVÍK & AKUREYRI CLOSER TO NATURE CERTIFCATE ofEXCELLENCE “ONE OF THE MOST FUN ACTIVITIES IN REYKJAVÍK ” Reviewed July 2016 AKUREYRI OFFICE +354 497 1000 REYKJAVIK OFFICE +354 497 0000 EXPRESS WHALES & MIDNIGHT SUN Price: 19.990 ISK WHALES, PUFFINS & REYKJAVÍK Price: 19.990 ISK “THANKS FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE EVENING!” Reviewed July 2016 DEPARTURES: Daily at 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00 & 20:00 SMALL GROUP: Max 12 passengers per boat EXPRESS TOUR: Two hour Whale & Puffin Watching Cover more area in our custom designed RIB boats Get closer to the Faxaflói bay wildlife Two hour Evening Whale & Puffin Watching Panoramic views of Reykjavík City DEPARTURES: Daily at 20:00
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