R&D departments at Ås in Norway and industry stakeholders have employed the salmon’s reference genome to create new and more efficient selection tools.

Researchers have discovered that a specific gene plays a very important role in determining whether a salmon returns to spawn as a large or small salmon. They identified the gene and revealed its secret.

A well-attended miniseminar was held in association with the opening of Nofima’s new office in Alta in Finnmark. Members of the Norwegian parliament Frank Bakke-Jensen (H) and Helga Pedersen (Ap) were among those who held presentations at the seminar.

Nofima has developed in collaboration with European partners a fully automatic sensor to measure levels of nitrogen compounds in recirculated water.

Never has the survival of juvenile cod been as high at the food research institute Nofima. Systematic improvements in all aspects of management have made a difference.

Tweaking breeding methods could allow European fish farming – or aquaculture – to produce more efficiently. An EU-funded project is studying how hi-tech breeding techniques can promote disease resistance and fast, efficient growth in six commonly farmed fish species, improving fish welfare, impacts on wildlife and farm productivity.

Four Norwegian research institutions, two outside of Norway and several industry partners from technology and the aquaculture industry have now started operations at a centre for innovation in closed-containment systems. The centre, CtrlAQUA, has been given NOK 200 million and eight years to reach its own ambition to make closed-containment systems for salmon up to one kilogram off-the-shelf systems.

Scientists at Nofima have developed a process additive with triple benefits: it functions as a binding agent, has high nutritional value, and makes it easier to produce fish feed with good physical properties.

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg recently referred to salmon as “Norway’s IKEA”, because people buy and eat Norwegian salmon all over the world. In the same way as IKEA needs materials to build furniture, salmon need a feed on which they can grow. The feeds that are currently in use consist principally of raw materials from plants. A revolution in feed has been under way for the past 15 years. And it’s far from over.

Healthier, stronger, bigger: this is a goal for Norwegian farm-raised salmon – and Harald Takle is their personal trainer.