Why and how to regulate Norwegian salmon production? – The history of Maximum Allowable Biomass (MAB)

Abstract

Salmon farming has been a great success story in Norway over the last 50 years, but the industry is still much disputed. Right from the start, farmers were licensed, with a limit on total production. In addition, each site was regulated according to carrying capacity. Over the years, various management measures have been used to regulate both the total production and environmental conditions, before ending up with Maximum Allowable Biomass (MAB). Since 2005, this has been the common “currency” in all regulations. Since then, the industry has experienced various new management schemes, to cater for environmental sustainability (green licenses, the traffic light system, development licenses, offshore as well as land based production), all based on MAB. The article sets out to explain why and how Norwegian authorities have chosen to regulate total production at national level, and when this failed, why they have maintained MAB as a key regulatory instrument.