To control the aquaculture industry by traffic lights – Vesterålen Online

When Fisheries Elisabeth Aspaker Friday presented White Paper on growth in the aquaculture industry, it was proposed to introduce a completely new system for regulating the growth of industry.

– This is to ensure environmental sustainability and predictability, says Minister in a press release.

Aspaker will develop action rules to ensure that growth occurs in a sustainable manner. The proposal involves dividing the coast into 11 to 13 production areas, unlike today where these are connected to the Directorate of Fisheries nine regions.

Environmental status in these new production areas will determine whether there is room growth or not. This will be assessed every two years.

– Environmental challenges must be addressed

Aspaker says in the press release that the potential for further growth in the aquaculture industry is great, but that growth requires that environmental issues are addressed. Therefore Launches government a kind of traffic system, where growth is allowed in areas with green light – and reduced in areas with red light.

– Our proposal is a new way of thinking growth. It builds on traffic lights principle. Where the green light, it will be possible to grow. Yellow light means wait while red light means stoppage and reduction in the amount of salmon. We know that the environmental situation is different along the coast. Some places there is no room for growth, while other places are ready coast. The traffic light ensures that growth is only going where nature can tolerate it, says Aspaker.

Capacity Adjustment within the new system, according to the government in the first time could occur in late 2016 or early in 2017.

The Government proposes that growth is assessed every other year, and capacity adjustment is six percent.

measures the government proposes in the White Paper:

• Facilitate predictable and environmentally sustainable growth in salmon and trout farming.
• Utilize environmental sustainability as the most important prerequisite to regulate further growth in the industry.
• Linking capacity change for a modular system based on guideline production areas.
• Contribute to predictability because what shall be the basis for capacity change and how often valuations shall remain fixed over time.
• Consider a capacity adjustment of six percent in salmon and trout aquaculture biennial (moderate risk profile).
• Consider the risk profile changes in modules to action rule.
• Starting a process to divide the coast into production areas, and introduce a guideline where environmental status of production areas determines whether the industry production capacity to be changed or not.
• Involve relevant interests, including local and regional authorities, early in the process of establishing production areas.
• Use an indicator of sea lice in a fiscal capacity changes.
• Starting work to develop an indicator for emissions, and eventually consider whether such an indicator should be introduced.
• Assign each permit to a permanent production area.
• Assign increased capacity through both new licenses and increased MTB on existing permissions.
• Assign new licenses primarily through auction, secondarily for fixed price and lot.
• Allocation of increased capacity on existing permits occurs mainly through auction but can be assigned to a fixed price.
• Open exceptions guideline where it can be demonstrated that operating mode can not affect the environmental challenge that triggers a reduction in production capacity in the area.
• Evaluate scheme interregional biomass ceiling.
• Open that permits for land-based aquaculture of salmon and trout can be assigned continuously and without compensation.
• Initiating a process to implement the necessary changes in the permit system foreland based farming.
• Leave large parts of the consideration when allocating increased capacity accrue municipalities.