New appointment to help aquaculture tackle environmental issues

The employers’ group Seafood Norway has appointed a new manager with a mission to assess and help reduce the environmental impact of aquaculture and seafood in general.

Mats Snåre, (pictured) who has moved from Cermaq where he worked for several years, holds an undergraduate biology degree after studying industrial ecology.

He said: “I must admit that probably not many people have heard of this. It’s quite new, but I can promise that in a few years I think this will be on everyone’s lips, more like the word ‘sustainability’ has been in recent years.”

The appointment should also help to counter some of the criticism that the aquaculture industry is lukewarm about the environment.

He will look at every activity a company carries out, the raw materials it uses, and how it will impact on the environment. In technical language it is called a life course analysis or life cycle assessment and isa something the EU has been working on for some time.

Snåre said he plans to take this “exciting” concept even further and more understandable.

“The demand for sustainability has been strong within the seafood sector for a long time and will increase in the future,” he added.

Seafood Norway CEO Geir Ove Ystmark said there was considerable demand within the organisation for such a key appointment.

The demand for sustainability is strong in the markets and will increase in the future. Consumers and retailers want to know more about the footprint.”

Groups such as the EU will in future demand more documentary environmental certification, he added.