Arctic charr farming is so far a small but promising business in the NPP area. This species are mainly farmed in Iceland (1200 tonnes/year), in Sweden (700 tonnes/year) and in Norway (700 tonnes/year) using different farming technologies.
The prime aim is to develop the farming of Arctic charr in the Northern Periphery area:
- By identifying production potential and bottle-necks in different regions and with different technologies.
- By develop and implement solutions to problems in farming that we have identified already.
- By initiating triple-helix structures in order to provide stakeholders with tools and contact network that will facilitate development.
Identifying potentials and bottle-necks
- • The general trends of development and status will be described.
• Information on annual production, production technology, fish stocks, health status, as well as legislation, production strategies and staff qualifications will be collected.
• Bottlenecks of production will be identified in the different NPP countries, and for different technologies. The information will be collected from legal authorities, export databases and directly from the farmers.
• Identification of problems offers an opportunity to coordinate R&D activities making use of limited R&D funds more effective.
• Status description of farming, given the different environments and technology used. This will form an empirical basis for production of "Best practice" protocols for Arctic charr, reflecting today's production capacity and future prospects.
Already identified issues with respect to production potential and bottlenecks
- Improve egg survival by evaluating optimal conditions for the brood-stock
- Evaluate new and sustainable ingredients in fish feed such as mussel meat and plant oils
- Evaluate optimal routines for feed delivery to improve the feed conversion factor
- Define welfare standards for Arctic charr farming including alternatives to slaughter methods using CO2 .
- Develop a model for calculation of environmental impact
- Water treatment in recirculation systems
Triple helix networks
- By bringing together investors, representatives of local communities and scientific experts in aquaculture to present and discuss suitable approaches, methods and sites for charr farming, as well as marketing we contribute to the establishment of new companies and/or farming sites.
- We aim to encourage transnational ownership as a tool to boost production
Goals
- A tested and documented best practice for triple helix networks in charr farming. An increase of the number of new companies by at least 4 with a total annual production of at least 1000 tonnes within the next 5 years.
- Existing companies will increase their production from about 3000 tonnes to 6000 tonnes within 5 years.
- Increased local and regional processing of the fish with the establishment of at least 2 processing plants
- An increased number of employees by at least 25 annual workers on the farms and an increased number of employees by approximately 25 in new and existing processing plants.
- The project will produce reports, method manuals, guidelines and standards and a computer program. Dissemination will be through popular and scientific reports, courses, the charrnet website as well as transnational and local meetings.
