Four separate land-based fish farms in Iceland – First Water, Laxey, Samherji Fishfarming, and Thor Salmon – have signed a declaration of intent to work together to responsibly and sustainably manage aquaculture waste streams.

The companies, along with E.U.-funded project Terraforming LIFE – a project working to transform fish sludge from aquaculture operations and manure into biofertilizers – and the Icelandic Farmers Association agreed to work together on transforming waste into other products. As part of the new commitment, the four companies said they will form a joint venture to process fish sludge, aiming to form a business plan and a finance needs assessment before the end of October 2025.

“The declaration demonstrates that Icelandic land-based fish farming is ready to join forces in developing sustainable solutions,” Icelandic Farmers’ Association Margrét Ágústa Sigurðardóttir said in a release. “Together with Terraforming LIFE and the Icelandic Farmers’ Association, this initiative aims to turn waste streams into valuable products and strengthen Iceland’s circular economy.”

Terraforming LIFE has already worked with terrestrial farming operations on producing ingredients and fertilizer from waste products. The project first kicked off in June 2023 and began negotiations on a biofertilizer plant in Ölfus, Iceland, by December 2023.

Sigurðardóttir said the new commitment by First Water, Laxey, Samherji Fishfarming, and Thor Salmon is a “major step” and helps advance the mission of enabling innovative and scalable environmental solutions for problems like what to do with fish sludge from land-based aquaculture farms. 

“This is a pivotal achievement in aquaculture and an example for others to follow,” Sigurðardóttir said.

Source - https://www.seafoodsource.com