This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 1 2026.
Iceland’s Ministry of Industries has opened a draft bill on aquaculture for consultation, proposing a single, comprehensive legal framework to govern sea-cage farming, land-based farming, ocean farming, and fjord grazing. The bill aims to strengthen regulation, reduce negative environmental impacts, and create clearer incentives that support sustainable value creation. If adopted, it would repeal Act No. 71/2008 on Aquaculture and Act No. 89/2019 on marine aquaculture fees and the Aquaculture Fund. Many proposed changes draw on recommendations from the National Audit Office’s January 2023 administrative audit of sea-cage farming.
For sea-cage farming, the draft includes stronger incentives for closed containment and sterile salmon, expanded river monitoring, risk-based planning through infection control areas, simplified licensing, and increased supervisory powers with greater use of electronic monitoring. It also proposes tighter measures on lice control, genetic-mixing risk assessment, and monitoring of sexually mature farmed salmon, alongside revised municipal allocations from the Aquaculture Fund.
