A. Species
Scientific name: Gadus morhua
Common name(s): Atlantic cod
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Norway
Country/Region: Norway
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: aquaculture cod farms offshore
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 1994
End Year: 2019
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from the wild but reared/cultivated in a managed site and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed and Conservation Management
Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community), Largescale commercial exploitation for trade and Population/Area Management
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: National / local private sector
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from the wild but reared/cultivated in a managed site and Wild species born/bred and raised/produced in captivity or through artificial propagation
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: cod farming allows over-fished wild Atlantic cod to recover while species still being exploited as food/ feed
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Cod breeding programs should continue and future cod farming may benefit from planned, incremental growth while addressing the challenges discovered over the last 20 years and avoiding another cod farming collapse. This may enable high enough production volume of each company for a stable and season-independent delivery to the market.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: This study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Cod breeding programs should continue and future cod farming may benefit from planned, incremental growth while addressing the challenges discovered over the last 20 years and avoiding another cod farming collapse. This may enable high enough production volume of each company for a stable and season-independent delivery to the market.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered sustainable
Details of assessment carried out: regulated also in regard to human health
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: cod have been eaten for hundreds of years
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: actually study states that further work needs to investigate sustainability from animal welfare point of view (see below)
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: More research is needed on feed composition, cod biology and physiology, farming technology that supports fish welfare, and disease and parasite problems.
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
Cod breeding programs should continue and future cod farming may benefit from planned, incremental growth while addressing the challenges discovered over the last 20 years and avoiding another cod farming collapse. This may enable high enough production volume of each company for a stable and season-independent delivery to the market. More research is needed on feed composition, cod biology and physiology, farming technology that supports fish welfare, and disease and parasite problems.
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2022-12-02