Norway's Fisheries Minister calls crisis meeting on sea lice

Intrafish November 24, 2009 An urgent meeting is being called by Norway's Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen to discuss the worsening issue of sea lice on salmon farms. The meeting, to be held on November 26th, will have technical authorities, industry players, experts and investors in research present. The primary goal of the meeting is to establish a common platform for the status of the problem, including an understanding for the need of future initiatives. "There has been a substantial change in the salmon lice situation lately" said Berg-Hansen "If the aquaculture industry is to achieve long-term, sustainable growth, we have to find solutions to this problem. Therefore I want to discuss status and initiatives in the short and long terms with the leading players." Recently, there have been considerably higher levels of sea lice being reported on salmon farms in Norway, and an increasing number of cases in farms where treatment has not reduced these numbers as effectively as hoped. This suggests that de-lousing methods are either being inadequately implemented or the treatments are no longer effective. Berg-Hansen has said, "We cannot just go along with this. We must find solutions together that ensure we can reach the targets in the government's strategy for an environmentally sustainable aquaculture industry"

See a listing of Norwegian media related to this story on the Pure Salmon website