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Kjersti Eline Tønnessen Busch from SALT had the pleasure of moderating a strong panel that discussed Norway’s salmon aquaculture industry, when Meieriet Library in Vestvågøy invited for debate this week. The pros and cons of salmon farming were debated — an industry that creates activity and jobs in coastal communities and produces food that generates significant export revenues. At the same time, however, it has a negative impact on wild salmon and struggles with animal welfare issues and nutrient pollution. The panel consisted of Tormod Henry Skålsvik from Nova Sea AS, Kristoffer Høyning from Multigen Akva, Martin Eggen from BirdLife Norway, and Simen Sætre, who co-authored the book The New Fish together with Kjetil Østlie.
At SALT, we are extremely proud to lead the world’s largest professional cleanup initiative, Rydd i tide. We carry out this work on behalf of the program owner, the Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund (Handelens Miljøfond). Thanks to Rydd i tide, which is financed through the plastic bag levy, half of Norway’s outer coastline has now been cleaned. Here are some of the results so far:
- Over 4,300 tonnes of waste have been removed.
- More than 31,500 km of coastline have been cleaned.
- A completely new profession has emerged: kystrenovatører—professional cleanup workers dedicated to keeping our coast clean.
As program coordinator, we take great joy in following this effort closely every day.
Read more about the results of Rydd i tide on the Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund’s website here.
Molly Reamon is our newest advisor at SALT. With a master’s degree in coastal zone ecology and a soon-to-be completed PhD in the same field from the University of Agder, she strengthens SALT’s expertise in marine ecology and conservation at our southernmost office in Arendal.
Molly comes from the position of project manager for marine conservation and restoration at the County Governor of Agder. In her PhD research, she has mapped the distribution and overlap of Pacific oyster, European flat oyster, and blue mussel in the Skagerrak, and also examined how climate change may affect the distribution of these species in Europe in the future.
Born and raised in Michigan, USA, her interest in marine life was sparked the first time she dived beneath the surface of the sea on the southern coast of Norway. Today, she is passionate about applying her knowledge of coastal ecology, along with her skills in data analysis and visualization, to support sustainable coastal and marine management.
We are delighted to have Molly on board and warmly welcome her to SALT.
Understanding the transport and retention of floating plastic debris in fjords and coastal systems is essential for targeted mitigation strategies. In our lates article published in Frontiers in Marine Science, we investigates surface transport dynamics in Storvika and Sundklakkstraumen, a tidally energetic system in the Lofoten archipelago, Northern Norway.
Read the article published in cooperation with Akvaplan-niva here.
