Contact
Jónas Rúnar Viðarsson
Director of Business and Development
jonas@matis.is
Fish and other seafood play an important role in ensuring food security, employment and the economy in the world, and especially in the Nordic countries. In addition, seafood of Nordic origin generally comes from sustainably exploited stocks, is particularly healthy for consumption and in most cases has a very limited carbon footprint compared to other protein sources. It can therefore be argued to a certain extent that Nordic seafood is a "sustainable superfood". However, consumers are often not sure if seafood is an environmentally friendly option. The Nordic fishing industry is now faced with the opportunity to take the lead in the energy exchange, and thus be able to boast of offering the best and most environmentally friendly seafood available.
The Working Group on Fisheries and Aquaculture (AG-Fisk) operating within the Nordic Council has identified these opportunities, and as part of Iceland's presidency of the Council in 2023, AG-fisk funded a project designed to promote networking within the Nordic fisheries to increase awareness and share knowledge about past, present and future progress in terms of sustainability and energy transition in the fisheries sector. The highlight of the project was a conference held in Reykjavík on September 13, 2023, but the day before a working meeting was held where opportunities for increased Nordic cooperation were discussed. The conference consisted of 13 talks and about 150 people attended the event, which took place in Harpa. This report contains an overview of the presentations made at the conference. Recordings from the conference are also available at website of the project.
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Seafood is generally a climate-efficient and nutritious type of food. Consumers, however, are often confused as to whether seafood is sustainable or not and what seafood to choose. The Nordic seafood sector now has the opportunity to take the lead in transitioning to low greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency measures and shifting to alternative fuels.
The Working Group for Fisheries and Aquaculture (AG-Fisk) within the Nordic council has recognized this, and as part of Iceland's presidency of the council in 2023, initiated a networking project to raise awareness and share knowledge on past-, present- and future advances in reduction of environmental impacts in Nordic seafood value chains. The highlight of the project was a conference that was held in Reykjavík on 13 September 2023. The conference consisted of 13 presentations and was attended by close to 150 persons. This report contains the proceedings from the conference, representing an abstract of each presentation and the slides presented. Recordings form the conference are also available on the project's webpage.