Director General Magnor Nerheim

Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs

Official Opening of International Conference on Harmonization of the Care and Use of Fish in Research

Gardermoen, 23 May 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to welcome you all – on behalf of the Ministry – to Norway and to this expert conference on harmonization of the care and use of fish in research. After the reorganization of the food policy area in Norway from last year, the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs is responsible for seafood safety as well as fish health and welfare.

Animals are and have always been a natural part of our society and our culture. We have kept animals for farming purposes for decades. Over the recent years, farmed fish has in our country become the most important livestock. Norway is today the world’s largest producer of Atlantic salmon and a substantial producer of Rainbow trout. The production in metric tons within the modern Norwegian aquaculture now doubles the meat production within traditional domestic agriculture.

Today, the Norwegian aquaculture industry is a modern, internationally competitive industry that produces top-quality seafood. Aquaculture products constitute more than one-third of Norway’s total seafood exports. The industry is of vital importance to both employment and settlement along the Norwegian coast.

In Norway, there is increasing awareness of the huge potential that lies in the development of marine resources. Our aim is that both fisheries and aquaculture play an increasingly important role in the country’s industrial sector. There is a rising global demand for seafood. Since the ability to increase the output from traditional fisheries is limited, the planned growth must be achieved within the aquaculture sector. Extensive efforts are now focused on developing new species for cultivation, including cod, halibut, catfish and shellfish. This gives us several new challenges and the need for more extensive knowledge.

Our aim is to further develop sustainable aquaculture, to increase the production volume and to fully realize the potential within this sector. We have been given a natural environment quite suitable for aquaculture, and see it as our obligation to use it.

At the same time, safeguarding fish health and welfare is of importance. In order to achieve this, we need updated knowledge on the different fish species; on biology, health, genetics and behavior. Such knowledge is in our society achieved through research, and Norway carries out comprehensive and complex research within all of these areas.

Good health and welfare contribute to the profitability of the aquaculture industry and are crucial factors in ensuring the competitiveness. Environmental considerations and efforts to safeguard fish health and welfare have therefore been given high priority both in the fish farming industry and for the government.

Marine research has been of vital importance in developing the aquaculture industry and in reaching today’s high technical and ethical level. The aim is to optimize the production of salmon and trout, and to achieve economy within farming and harvesting of marine species and shellfish. To be able to develop this industry further, we need a greater understanding that is based on validated results. It is hard to find comparative scientific information from other areas. Because of this, we have to carry out pioneering scientific research.

A special challenge has been to do scientific research on health, healthcare and health protective measures on aquatic organisms and fish. Results obtained from one species cannot automatically be transferred to other species. In fact, the main rule rather seems to be the opposite. The result of this has been the need for a lot of scientific research. The results from this research activity and the implementation of these results in fish farming, has been crucial to the success of our aquaculture industry. An example of this is that fish farming without efficient vaccines against bacteriological infections in fish, would not be possible.

So far, it has been necessary to use fish as test organisms in specified scientific studies. These studies can be painful to the animal used, and mortality is established as a research parameter. We are aware of this, and we welcome initiatives taken in order to develop new, alternative methods in this field.

Our ambition is to be in the international forefront in marine research. This obviously includes the standards and methods used. It is important that the methods used in studies that includes live fish, are operated at high ethical standards in order to ensure optimal and high quality results. Alternative and more considerate methods are also an aim. We must be aware of how we treat our research animals. It is therefore essential that everyone involved in research that includes live fish have an attitude and an awareness of the importance of this. We therefore welcome the initiative of this conference.

In short:

• We see an obligation in developing aquaculture as a means for increasing food production;
• We have an ambition to see growth in aquaculture and to include new species;
• We therefore need more research;
• We accept that fish has to die and even suffer, to achieve this.

I will end my short address today by wishing you all a good and constructive conference. I am sure that all of you will contribute to making it a success, and the Ministry is looking forward to learning about your thoughts and conclusions.