Icelanders against open pen farming, Gallup poll finds

More than half of Icelanders are against open net-pen salmon farming at sea, according to a Gallup poll.

The survey was carried out on behalf of a number of campaign groups dedicated to protecting the country’s wild salmon population. Its findings contradict an earlier poll which found that 67% of the population in the country’s Westfjords region backed the development of the salmon industry.

The Gallup poll was conducted around the middle to late February with 1,822 people surveyed nationwide. Gallup said it received 956 (52%) responses.

They were asked if they believed salmon farming in open sea pens should be banned with two thirds or 61% agreeing with that view.

The groups, which include the Wild Salmon Stocks Protection Fund (NASF), the Icelandic Nature Conservation Fund (IWF), the National Federation of Fishing Associations and Laxinn Lifi, have called on the government of Iceland to “listen to the will of the people and move away from the polluting and harmful activity of salmon farming in open sea pens.”

They added: “The experience of other nations shows that the environmental impact of sea pen farming is unacceptable, and it is not justified to eliminate wild salmon populations and ecosystems for the profiteering of sea pen farming companies.

“The recently published report of the National Audit Office clearly shows that the regulation and supervision of the industry is in tatters and that the interests of the industry have had an unreasonable influence on the legislation.”

The earlier poll, which indicated support for the industry, was carried out in by the University of Akureyri in Westfjords, Iceland’s main salmon farming area, a few weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, Iceland’s Food Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir has told the National Salmon Conservation Agency Salmon Summit Conference that the government plans to revive her country’s membership of NASCO, the National Salmon Conservation Agency. The agency was formed in 1984 to protect wild salmon stocks.

Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir