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.
Vinnuhópur um sjávarútveg og fiskeldi (AG-Fisk) sem starfar innan Norðurlandaráðs hefur bent á þessi tækifæri, og sem hluti af formennsku Íslands í ráðinu árið 2023 fjármagnaði AG-fisk verkefni sem ætlað var að stuðla að tengslamyndun innan Norræns sjávarútvegs til að auka vitund og miðla þekkingu um framfarir í fortíð, nútíð og framtíð hvað varðar sjálfbærni og orkuskipti í sjávarútvegi. Hápunktur verkefnisins var ráðstefna sem haldin var í Reykjavík 13. september 2023, en daginn áður var haldin vinnufundur þar sem tækifæri til aukins Norræns samstarfs voru rædd. Ráðstefnan samanstóð af 13 erindum og sóttu um 150 manns viðburðinn, sem fram fór í Hörpu. Í þessari skýrslu er að finna yfirlit yfir þær framsögur sem fluttar voru á ráðstefnunni. Upptökur frá ráðstefnunni eru einnig aðgengilegar á 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.
