Capture-based aquaculture – saving the catches in cages to be butchered and sold when most advantageous market-wise – is hailed by a Norwegian scientist as “the fishing method of the future”.
“If you catch 100 tonnes of wild cod in April, you can sell 200 tonnes in December”, says Kjell Ø. Midling, a senior scientist with the The Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima) in Tromsø.
Capture-based fisheries mean that seasonal fluctuations can be avoided and fish may be delivered to customers on a year-round basis.
Interviewed on the Nofima website, Midling who is the head of the recently established Centre of Excellence for Capture-base, pointed out that the method as such is nothing new – rather the opposite.
“People have done this for thousands of years. Not to kill everything you catch has been the rule in many cultures”, he remarked, adding that such is still the practice with some 20 percent of the global outtake, although much less in countries like Norway with more industrialised fisheries. The oil industry just recently passed fisheries as Norway’s number one source of export income.
Cod will be the focus species for the new Centre’s work, but its studies will also include king crab, crayfish and sea urchin.
“Our tasks will grasp a wide span; we are eager to get to know more about everything from fish welfare and fishing gear, to transports and logistics in relation to the markets”, Mildling explained.
“As we’re harvesting natural stocks, like the wild cod, there is a limit to how much we can catch and still maintain the balance in the seas. If we want a bigger profit, that must come from added value to what we’ve already caught. We must profit from what Nature has given us in the best way, seeing to it that no value gets wasted on the way”.