Nearly 40 organisations have signed an open letter calling on the Norwegian government to ban the country’s salmon farming industry from sourcing fish oil from West Africa. Signatories include groups from West Africa representing the region’s small-scale fishing sector, which is suffering from the impacts of overfishing, in part driven by the production of fishmeal and fish oil for the global aquaculture industry.
The letter comes in the wake of a report from Feedback – an environmental campaign group – which claims that the Norwegian salmon farming industry contributes to food insecurity in the region.
“The fishmeal industry is a serious threat to food security and the future of fisheries in West Africa. This industry plunders our marine resources to feed intensive aquaculture in Asia and Europe, when local populations need it for their own food,” said Greenpeace Africa senior campaign manager Dr Aliou Ba, in a press release.
“It is time that the fish of the poor stopped feeding the fish of the rich. Our oceans and our people deserve better,” they added.
Fish oil is a common ingredient found in aquafeeds for salmonids and other aquaculture species, with the Norwegian industry sourcing a significant percentage of its fish oil from the West African region. The report calls out four major aquafeed producers – Mowi, Skretting, Cargill, and Biomar – all of which source fish oil from West Africa. According to Feedback, the fish used to produce the fish oil consumed by Norwegian salmon farms could have been used to feed up to 4 million people for a year.
In the open letter to the Norwegian government, the 39 signatories also call for Norway’s leadership to stop further growth in the country’s salmon farming sector and to mandate genuine transparency throughout corporate supply chains.
“The aquaculture industry claims that they feed the world's population when, in reality, they are taking away the livelihood of those who already have the least, the same people who are most affected by the disproportionately large greenhouse gas emissions of the Western countries. The politicians have to wake up, and take action regarding the feed production for the Norwegian aquaculture industry,” said Gytis Blaževičius, leader of Young Friends of the Earth Norway.
