Communications Spin - Norway, Hofseth

It is hard to believe that after all the destruction that Norwegian fish farms have inflicted on the world's oceans that in the face of lice killing salmon and wild salmon, diseases, escapes, genetic damage, huge sewage release, unsustainable feed, the list goes on... that anyone would have the temerity to use the same communications spin as was used almost 50 years ago.

But Hofseth takes the cake: http://www.hofseth-as.no/. Here is the spin from the first page of their site. These are the first words that greet you:


"Mystique of Norway

Norway's wonderful, unspoiled natural environment is famous worldwide for its deep, cold, and clear fjords.

This unique nature has made Norway a perfect area for fish farming; an area where the Atlantic salmon really belong after thousands of years with natural accommodation. Our products come from Norway's best and most sophisticated farmers, in the clean, deep Norwegian fjords."

Now that you have returned from the washroom where you emptied your stomach contents into the toilet, let me ask: can you believe that after 50 years of destruction around the world, that any company can claim the same unsubstantiated BS that they have all along?

I think not.

This is in the face of world wide problems. And in Norway, the government getting so fed up with in-ocean fish farms that it is no longer auctioning licences for in the ocean, but giving out free ones to set up shop on land, a $9- to $12-million subsidy. Only licences for clear technical advances in-ocean are being considered.

And Norway has 1100 in-ocean fish farms, vastly more than many other places. BC for instance, has 130 licences with 85 operating at any given time. And in all the countries that have Norwegian style fish farms the public overwhelmingly rejects them. In WA, for example, where the Cooke Cypress Island site collapsed releasing more than 100,000 farmed salmon, the public is taking them to court.

And, of course, you will remember that last year, 2016, Scotland (10,000,000 fish) and Norway's losses to lice, added to the Chilean losses to an algal bloom caused in part by their own sewage (25,000,000 dead fish) reduced the world supply by 8.7%, the issues were so bad.

Here is a reference for feed unsustainability: the top 20 global forage fish species for fish meal/oil are either in collapse, poorly managed or both. Norway is responsible for the Jack Mackerel crash off Chile, says The Sea Around Us Report: http://www.seaaroundus.org/doc/publications/books-and-reports/2016/End_Use_Reconstruction_Report.pdf..


And I have calculated that the sewage cost in BC is $10.4 Billion and this is the most conservative figure I could derive. In Scotland and especially in Norway, the in-ocean fish farms put out far more sewage than the human population as well, because there are even more in-ocean farmed fish.

And an industry the size of BC's kills 5.76 billion forage fish for food to bring in one harvest. Fish farms don't save fish as they claim, they kill them in huge numbers.

Now go back and read the disingenuous Hofseth spin again.