Aquaculture groups urge Iceland to complete legal framework

Iceland’s fisheries industry association and Farmers Association say the country urgently needs a clear and predictable legal framework for aquaculture, mbl.is reports. The framework should cover land-based farming, sea-cage farming and offshore farming, according to Heiðrún Lind Marteinsdóttir, managing director of the fisheries association SFS.

The land-based aquaculture division of the Farmers Association of Iceland wrote to the minister of business affairs and the prime minister earlier this week, asking the government to prioritise new legislation for land-based farming.

The association said separate bills had been proposed for seaweed farming and offshore farming, and argued that land-based aquaculture should also have its own legislation because it operates under significantly different conditions from farming in sea cages.

Clear rules are the priority

Heiðrún Lind said SFS partly agreed with the association’s position. Although the different farming methods have much in common, she said, the nature of the operations differs and legislation must clearly reflect those differences.

She said it was less important whether the rules were established within a single legal framework or through separate laws. The priority, she said, was to create clear and predictable rules that provided a firm basis for responsible development and value creation.

When Iceland’s parliament reconvened in the middle of the month, it became clear that a bill on aquaculture was not included in the Ministry of Business Affairs’ legislative programme. A comprehensive bill had been reviewed and approved by the parliamentary committee on business affairs during the final stages of the summer session, but there was not enough time to pass it. If reintroduced this autumn, the bill would effectively be close to the starting point again.

Gunnþór Ingason, chairman of SFS, told 200 Miles at the end of August that it was regrettable that comprehensive legislation governing the operating environment for fish farming had not been completed. He said there were hopes that it would be completed this autumn.

Business Affairs Minister Hanna Katrín Friðriksson said at a conference on marine cultivation of large algae in Akranes earlier this month that she planned to introduce separate legislation for that activity.

The government’s legislative programme for the coming parliamentary session also includes plans for a separate bill on offshore farming carried out outside the areas covered by current legislation. Existing aquaculture laws are almost exclusively designed for conventional fish farming in open sea cages.

In their letter to the ministers, the Farmers Association said land-based aquaculture was facing extensive development and investment in the coming years. Its legal environment therefore needed to reflect the industry’s distinct characteristics and provide the predictability necessary for its continued growth.

The association said it was concerning that uncertainty remained over changes intended to create a separate and defined legal framework for land-based aquaculture, despite clear goals in Iceland’s business policy.