Representatives of the indigenous Sami people in northern Norway have accused the country’s fish farmers of threatening wild salmon stocks.
Sami Parliament Assembly Hall
The Sami Parliament Council is calling for all salmon farming activity to be placed into closed-cage operations.
The Samis are recognised as the traditional inhabitants of Norway and the wider Arctic region of northern Scandinavia.
The Sami Parliament Council is calling for action to be taken to deal with salmon lice and what they call “toxic emissions” from fish farms. It also wants to see the removal of introduced predatory fish, such as pike, from the rivers in northern Norway.
The Council has pointed out that the Canadian government is already taking action against similar problems in British Columbia by not allowing new permits, or farming capacity increases, in open cages by the end of the decade.
One Sami councillor Jon-Christer Mudenia said his people must build up the salmon population on nature’s own terms by protecting spawning areas and removing obstacles to migration.
“At the same time, we will work for a large and targeted harvest of pike in the entire Tana River basin. Local fishermen must receive proper payment, suitable gear and predictable permits, and the state must significantly increase the pike premium, Mudenia added.
The Sami Parliament Council has said that Norway must stop waiting for science to confirm conditions that people by the river and sea have observed for generations. It also wants action taken against what it claims is the increasing use of chemicals in the salmon farming industry.
The Norwegian government has yet to respond to the Sami claims.