Salmon Farming in Norway

Salmon Farming in Norway

Fish farming and filleting in Norway

I checked before breakfast whilst it was still dark but the northern lights had gone. But it was a busy morning and we passed another Hurtigruten Coastal Express going north off our port beam. There are daily sailings so we see one every day.

And yet more shipping, a rig support vessel and a coaster.

And then it was an escape from the Arctic as we passed the globe on the island that marked the Arctic Circle.

A close up of the globe.

And of course there was another ceremony, not ice down your back but this time a case of cod liver oil, being held up by Sigmund, the Hotel Manager.

A close up of the bottle. Explorers found this particularly useful in ensuring that they had the right vitamins when exploring in the cold, dark Arctic.

Raymond the captain drank his out of a glass. Rune, the lead in the Coastal Experience Team said that the captain was 94 years old but that the daily dose of cod liver oil made him look young.

Then it was the passengers turn to pick up a spoon and try cog liver oil. Many jokes are made about it but it is really not as bad as you might expect.

The Helgelandsbrua which connects the island on which Sandnessjøen sits, our next port of call, with the mainland. 

A boat cuts through our wash as we dock at Sandnessjøen. We set off again and were soon passing the Seven Sisters...

...the first three....

                                        

followed by the four in front, the two close together on the left are twins.

There were two troll kings who didn't agree on much except that their children needed more discipline. Th northern king had a wayward son who chased women trolls called the Horseman. The southern king had seven daughters who he sent to a maiden troll to teach them how to be good lady trolls. They were swimming when the Horseman saw them and fell in love. He started to chase them but realised that they were faster than he was.

He thought that if he couldn't have his love, then no one would. He raised his bow and fired an arrow but another troll witnessed the scene and threw his hat in the way of the arrow. The arrow pierced the hat and fell to the ground. But with all this action, they hadn't kept a note of the time and it was sunrise and all the trolls turned to stone. The Seven Sistera turned to stone just south of Sandnessjøen, The chasing troll became the Horseman Mountain near the island with the globe on it marking the arctic Circle and the hat became Torghatten Mountain with a curious hole in it. which people who don't believe in trolls think is just a cave through the mountain, but the troll story is much better at describing the creation of these features.

The Seven Sisters from further along the coast.

The tallest structure in Brønnøysund, the bridge connecting several small islands to the mainland.

The church is the second tallest structure built of stone in 1870 after the previous church (and several before it) which had been made of wood but had burned down.

                                        
We crossed the bridge to reach the salmon fish farm. The cages on the right were empty.

The control centre, floating on the end of the floating pier.

One of the cages, circumference of 60 metres and 19 metres deep. It originally had 5,000 fish but they are going to the slaughter house and only 500 are left. And since they are fewer, the netting has been pulled up and hung on hooks to reduce the depth of the cage. Commercial farms have cages with a circumference of 180 metres up to 60 metres deep holding 200,000 fish.

Some of the netting that has been pulled up bulging from the hooks around the inside of the top of the cage.

The silo holding the food pellets which are moved by air pressure ti the central feeding hub in each cage. There is no feeding hub in the above cage as they are about to go to slaughter and their stomachs must be empty.

This is a central post that would hold the central feeder (removed for maintenance) and it usually sits in the middle of the cage and when the fish are small, there are nets that street from the sides of the cage and over this centre mounting to keep the birds away. Once the fish are large enough, they are too big for the birds to catch so the bird netting can be removed.

aside the floating control room with a fish on the table ready to be filleted.

A blurry photo of a scoop of food pellets, made from soya, seaweed, fish flour and aspartame. Salmon naturally is a white meat but if it consumes enough shrimps, its meat turns salmon pink. The taste is the same but the buying public expect pink salmon, hence the need for additional natural colouring.

The roe are hatched in fresh water in a hatchery, large tanks inside a warehouse. The eggs become fry with an egg sack which they consume and become smelt. When they are big enough, they under go smoltification, a gradual introduction to salt water with fresh water slowly becoming the salinity of sea water. Then they are ready to be dispatched to cages in fjords or sheltered sea locations.

Before they are released, they are vaccinated against various diseases and against fish lice but the lice have become resistant to the vaccine. A natural counter lice option is to house wrasse with the salmon who eat lice but to them, it is only a snack, no a vital or integral part of their diet. Lice can't survive in warm or fresh water so an alternative is for the salon to be hoovered up and passed through either warm or freshwater which controls the spread off the lice. A last resort is medication.

Our guide filleting a fish. Several fish are captured regularly to check for lice, health, weight...

...the fillet...

...and to check for colour.

The fish farm is part of a private higher education establishment that teaches aquaculture.

The Brønnøysund bridge at sunset.
                                        

Sunset at sea.

Torghatten, the hat that saved one of the Seven Sisters from the arrow...

...the hole in the hat that the arrow made...

...another view...

...and a close up, the best I could do with my toy camera, at dusk in failing light and at a distance the arrow how is clear to see.

                                                 

That evening there was a special celebratory dinner to commemorate Richard With's founding of the Hurtigruten shipping company and 130 years of operations. The first course was a plate of cured meat and the second was green pea soup. In my eagerness to try them and satiate my appetite, I forgot to take any photos. And I just had to try some Norwegian wine, a 10% abv rose, not my first choice but if it was local, I had to try it.

                                       

The main course was Bona fish (there was also a choice of braised beef cheek).

The cheese course from local suppliers.

An finally the dessert, a sponge cake from Svolvaer.