Bodø municipality has received an application from a breeder to increase biomass at Bjørnøya south of Landegode. An application is being made to increase from 2,340 tonnes to 4,517 tonnes, a near doubling of production.
In the spatial plan for Bodø municipality, the areas are set aside for “Combined purposes in seas and waterways with or without an associated beach zone”, named Nature, Outdoors, Transport and Aquaculture.
In the application, it is claimed that “the fauna was little or not affected by the farming location.” This is in stark contrast to Bodø Fiskarlag’s feedback about “major challenges with pollution from these facilities in the Landegodefjord and the surrounding area”.
Fiskarlag Nord warns that Landegodefjorden is a large shrimp field, as well as a spawning area for and all species to the south-west of the site. Midtfjords has a larger growing and grazing area. The entire area is therefore of great value to the local fishing industry. Consequences of the use of lice killers, feed waste and emissions of copper from the facility have not been assessed.
There is a growing awareness of the need to safeguard the entire ecosystem. Little has been recorded about the influence of vulnerable habitat types around aquaculture facilities. For the Landegodefjord, the comprehensive knowledge base that safeguards the ecosystem from the seabed, via the life in the water column to the birdlife is missing.
The result of the upcoming processing of the “Quota report” in the Storting seems to give less priority to the coastal fleet. Reduced quotas will have consequences for both the fleet and jobs on land. There are several of us who can agree with Bodø Fiskarlag’s experiences regarding the reduced quality of the salmon after eating farmed pellets. The coastal fleet in Bodø needs a fresh stock of good quality sei to maintain jobs and good raw materials for its customers.
Bodø SV votes against the municipal director’s proposal to “take a positive view of an expansion of production”, and doubts that the aforementioned impact assessment will be a sufficient basis of knowledge to decide on increased production. We need a decision in principle that all farming must go into cages with 0 emissions before we can issue more permits.
