Norwegian government names new seafood minister

Norway has a new Minister of Fisheries and Oceans – just six months after the appointment of Cecilie Myrseth in the role.

Myrseth moves up to Trade and Industry as part of a number of new senior appointments which the Labour-Centre Party coalition government hopes will help restore its popularity.

She only took on the Fisheries job last October after the popular Bjørnar Skjæran was unceremoniously sacked in a major reshuffle.

Myrseth is replaced by 50-year-old Marianne Sivertsen Næss (pictured), a Labour stalwart, but also a politician who comes from a fishing and aquaculture area . Although not from a seafood background. It is thought she knows the industry and its problems quite well.

Married with four children, Næss is from the Hammerfest area and qualified as a lecturer at the University of Oslo and the University of Tromsø.

She taught in Hammerfest for six years up to 2005 before becoming joining the health service. In 2011 she returned to formal teaching as head of Hammerfest upper secondary school.

Næss also became involved in politics and was deputy mayor and mayor of Hammerfest for a total of 11 years. She was elected to the Storting in 2021 when she was given a junior energy and environment role.

Both sides of the seafood industry have said they look forward to working with the new minister, but at the moment her policy priorities are not widely known. It is expected that the environment and farmed fish welfare will feature prominently.

Bjørnar Skjæran (left) and Cecilie Myrseth