The Norwegian Food Safety Authority has approved applications for the production of triploid salmon at two farms, Nordland Akva AS and Ranfjord Fiskeprodukter AS.
Triploid salmon has three sets of chromosomes, unlike ordinary diploid salmon that only have two. The extra chromosome turnover makes the salmon sterile. The industry uses triploid salmon as a measure to protect wild salmon strains from interference with genes from escaped farmed salmon.
Recently, there has been a high number of salmon scapes in Norway and the Minister of Fisheries and Seafood, Harald T. Nesvik, called the industry to reduce the number of salmon escapes. According to the official statement, 30 escapes were reported in 2019 with more than 280,000 escaped salmon.
The approval is part of a project (NRS-TRIPWELL) testing triploid salmon production in Norway.
