Will reduce the environmental impact from fish farming nets

Bellona and Steen-Hansen are entering into a project collaboration to investigate how farmed nets can have a lower ecological impact throughout their entire life cycle – from production and use to maintenance and recycling.

The environment Foundation Bellona and Steen-Hansen invited Sintef Ocean, Niva, Akva group and Eldi to a workshop i Oslo, Wednesday 14.october. Photo: Bellona

– The goal is to give the industry a better basis for choosing solutions that reduce environmental impact, while ensuring fish welfare and biosafety are taken into account , says Berit Bjugan Aam, team leader for bioeconomy at Bellona.

Farming nets are a central part of the aquaculture industry. The choice of materials, impregnation, operation and cleaning methods affect emissions, biosecurity and the lifespan of the nets.

– There is currently no net strategy without disadvantages. All choices have consequences, and we must assess them collectively – based on environmental impact, predictability and economics. It is very demanding to find a balance that provides the lowest possible burden on the environment while at the same time safeguarding fish welfare and biosecurity. Therefore, the industry needs a broad knowledge base and better tools , says Ulrik Ulriksen, CEO of Steen-Hansen AS.

Sees the entire life cycle of the note in context

The collaboration starts with a pilot project that will map knowledge gaps and key challenges.

– We want to look at emissions of microplastics, chemicals and biocides, and investigate how operation and cleaning can affect the spread of disease-causing organisms. Longer lifespan and better opportunities for recycling are also key themes , says Bjugan Aam.

Bringing together research and industry

As part of the pilot project, Bellona and Steen-Hansen organized a workshop in Oslo this week, where researchers and industry players contributed to identifying key challenges.

– The input from the workshop gives us an important starting point for further work. We will now use them to develop the project further and look at how we can bring together research and industry to find solutions to these challenges , says Bjugan Aam.