The Norwegian Sea Ranching
Programme
A Programme under The Research
Council of Norway
| PUSH | is an
acronym in Norwegian, Program for Utvikling
og Stimulering av Havbeite, which may be
translated as "Programme for the Development and
Encouragement of Sea Ranching". The Government launched the programme in 1989 through a Parliament resolution. The programme period is 1990 - 97, and dotal cost is set to 200 million NOK (= 35 million USD). |
| Vision | The programme's vision is to enhance the coastal (fishing) industries by the means of sustainable sea ranching activities. |
| Aim | The
programme's aim is to clarify the biological, ecological,
judicial and economic basis for new industries in coastal
areas based on sea ranching of Atlantic salmon, Arctic
charr, Cod and Lobster, through the development of
release and harvest methods that are economically
profitable and ecologically justifiable. The principal objective for PUSH is to clarify the conditions for profitable sea ranching industries in coastal Norway. |
| Sea Ranching globally | The Japanese sea ranching programme, started in the early 70`s, has in parts proved to be a great success. Sea ranching comprises a substantial part of the total fisheries in Japan, especially for the salmon and scallop fishery. Sea ranching is also an important part of the salmon fishery of Pacific salmon in Russia and North America. Of the world's total salmon harvest of 1.150 thousand tonnnes (1991), about one third, or 400 thousand tonnes, is estimated to be the result of sea ranching. |
| Sea Ranching in Norway | The first
research activities on sea ranching in Norway dates back
as far as 1865, when the marine biologist G. O. Sars
launched the concept. In 1884 a marine hatchery was set
up in Flødevigen (South-Eastern Norway) and in 1908
another in Trondheim, releasing seeds of cod, plaice and
lobster. Sea ranching of Atlantic salmon dates back to the last century, but scientific work was not started until after 1960. In the early eighties the idea of sea ranching, or rather fjord ranching, of Cod, Lobster and Arctic charr, was taken up again. Long term projects on fjord ranching of cod, and later Arctic charr and lobster were started. |
| Topics pertaining to law | As we have no legislation on sea ranching, neither private nor public institutions can claim ownership of released organisms, though there may be exceptions when these are marked or tagged. Development of a sea ranching industry will demand a thorough examination of the legislation, and it may be necessary to prepare an act on sea ranching. A special legislation group has been appointed to make this examination. Their report is on public hearing these days. |
| Organization | The
participating ministries have been Ministry of Fisheries,
Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture,
Ministry of Local Government and Ministry of Industry.
From 1994 the programme sorts under The Research Council
of Norway. The board of the
PUSH programme has seven members, representing the
involved managements; Directorate of Fisheries,
Directorate of Nature Management, Veterinarian
authorities and professionals from fish farming industry
and finance. The secretariate, with 2
employees, is placed in Bergen. Address: PUSH Phone: 4755315260 Fax: 4755317395 Bontelabo 2 E- mail: borthen@telepost.no N - 5003 Bergen, NORWAY |
| The four
species |
|
| Atlantic salmon | |
| Strategy | The main strategy of the PUSH programme is to evaluate the potential use of small, coast near streams as release sites for salmon smolts. Parallel releases will be done in a large river for comparison. The salmon is to be harvested in the proximate vicinity of the release site, both by fishermen and by anglers. There are implications that harvesting sea ranched salmon by angling provides a higher price for the returned salmon. |
| Major projects | Institute
of marine research, Bergen: Releases of sibling
groups of salmon smolts from three different stocks in a
very small stream close to the coastal current since
1990. Norwegian
Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim: Releases of
salmon smolts in a dammed river since 1989. The salmon is
harvested in the sea, in a trap in the river and by
anglers. Sør-Helgeland Havbeite AS (a public funds corporation), Vega/Vefsna: Releases in a small stream close to the coastal stream with parallel releases in a large river further inland, using the same local stock (Vefsna). |
| Results | During the
programme there have been releases at three sites, in the
counties Hordaland, Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland. The
PUSH project with the longest record, with releases of
smolts since 1989, is situated in Nord-Trøndelag. Up to
now, there have been catches of three year classes of
salmon. The results on
catches of released salmon have been too low to prove
profitability for the operator, in as much as the catch
pattern of salmon shows that a very large portion of the
returning salmon is caught before they reach the release
site. This is due to the legislation on salmon fishing in
the sea, and, f.ex., any landowner can set up
wedge-shaped weirs on his property. In the vicinity of
the release site in Nord-Trøndelag there has been a
significant increase in fishing gear in the fjord after
the release programme started. The other projects under PUSH had their first releases in 1991, and the first catches of grilse in 1992. The catches of ranched salmon have varied from 1-6 %. |
| Arctic charr |
| Strategy | The
experiences with ranching of Arctic charr dates back to
1987 and the knowledge of this species in sea ranching is
according. Biologically, Arctic charr differs from salmon
in as much as the charr migrates short distances
("fjord ranching") and for a short period, most
commonly 30 to 40 days, repeated every summer. In Norway
the anadromous form is found north of 62 0N, and is looked upon as a North Norwegian
speciality. The projects under PUSH include releases of hatchery reared arctic charr under various conditions, selecting for the optimal hatchery conditions and strategies. In addition, the surplus of naturally produced Arctic charr in lakes is caught in baited pots and reared in a hatchery for a short period, conditioned, and then released. |
| Major projects | Norwegian
Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, and University
of Tromsø: Releases of hatchery reared charr in
River Hals, Alta (Finnmark County), and releases of
conditioned wild caught Arctic charr in River Møkkeland,
Harstad (Troms County). University of Trondheim: Releases of hatchery reared Arctic charr Sjonafjorden (Nordand County). |
| Results | The return
rate for arctic charr are high compared to other species,
but the weight increment is limited due to the short
migration and growth period. Migration studies on wild
fish have shown that they can double their weight during
the sea migration. Reared
Arctic charr have poorer growth and return rates than
their feral congeners. The best results so far have been
with large two year smolt, with return rates of 32 % and
weight increment of 26 %. The activities on arctic charr will be summed up in final reports this year. |
| Cod |
| Strategy | The main
efforts during the programme so far have been to supply
sufficient numbers of cod fry for release purposes.
Production techniques for cod fry are still in need of
considerable improvement. Intensive production of cod fry
is not a reality yet, so the only method available to
secure the programme enough release material, is the use
of semi extensive methods using marine ponds or
enclosures. This method has also been modified with the
use of large plastic bags serving as mesocosms, and the
marine pond is cultivated, serving as a supply of
zooplankton. $/font> Cod fry are released at sizes varying from 15 g up to as much as 100 g, but the higher production cost does not seem to be met with sufficiently improved recapture rates. Releases of small fry will aslo be tried out, as we now have tagging techniques making it possible to evaluate such experiments. |
| Major projects | Institute
of Marine Research, Bergen: Production of cod fry in
a marine pond and releases of cod in Øygarden (Hordaland
County). University of
Tromsø: Production of cod fry in plastic bag
mesocosms placed in a marine pond. Releases of cod
juveniles in fjords in Troms County. Lofilab, Lofoten: Production of cod fry in a marine pond for release purposes in Nordland County. |
| Results | There have
been releases of cod in Norway since 1983. So far, the
returns have varied, with recapture rates from a few
percent up to as much as 25 percent. On the other hand,
the highest recapture rates have been from releases of
large fry (> 100g), and the fish have to a large
extent been caught at a small size. This is mainly due to
the catch pattern in the release area in Western Norway,
where most of the cod are caught by anglers, and only a
small fraction of the fish reach a reasonable good
harvest size. Average size at recapture has been less
than 0,5 kg, and very few cod have had the opportunity of
growing larger than 3 kg. The released cod do not migrate very far. Releases in Western Norway have shown that less than 10 percent of the released cod have migrated further than 5 km. Further north there seems to be a considerable increase in the migratory behaviour. |
| Lobster | |
| Strategy | The PUSH
programme works on two different strategies for sea
ranching with lobster: 1 Releases of juveniles as a means of restocking depleted lobster stocks. The possibilities of the fishermen paying a licence fee is being discussed. 2 Releases of juveniles
as a part of the development of a profitable sea ranching
industry. PUSH has also been involved in the planning of a large scale production plant for 1.2 million lobster juveniles. |
| Major projects | Institute of Marine Research, Bergen: Production of lobster juveniles in Norway's only lobster hatchery with a production capacity of approx. 80 000 juveniles. The juveniles are released at a size of 3.5 - 7 cm, the main release site is Kvitsøy (Rogaland County) in addition to some small scale releases for scientific purposes along the coast of Western Norway. |
| Results | In 1990-94 130 000 juvenile lobsters were released in Western Norway, most of them in the Municipality of Kvitsøy, Rogaland County. The first recaptures of released lobsters were made in 1992. 50 % of the released lobsters are still below minimum catch size. It has been shown that released lobsters have produced external eggs, so that releases should contribute to the strengthening of local stocks. |