Biological control of salmon lice : a critical analysis of knowledge production and development in the Norwegian cleaner fish industry

Abstract

The lumpfish and four species of wrasse have become important resources for cleaning salmonids of sea lice in Norwegian aquaculture. Cleaner fish’s delousing effectiveness and mortality rates in salmon cages vary dramatically due to environmental conditions, disease, and husbandry practices. While cleaner fish are portrayed as an environmentally friendly product, no post-cleaning use is made of their body parts. Thus, researchers and animal rights organisations have questioned whether the wrasse fishery and large-scale lumpfish aquaculture is justified and ethical. This case study analyses themes derived from qualitative interviews focussing on the history, knowledge production, and contestation of cleaner fish practices using a critical political ecology approach. The results suggest that despite rapid growth in their use, cleaner fish are an impermanent delousing solution. Perceptions of cleaner fish use are changing from optimism to scepticism and their use is characterised by uncertainty due to efficacy and welfare challenges. I argue that producing and using cleaner fish in Norway is contradictory in nature and constitutes a ‘socioecological fix’ of capitalism. This helps explain how salmon aquaculture’s inherent vulnerability to lice creates an opportunity for behaviour in cleaner fish to be produced, exploited, and profited on. At the same time, this process both produces and ‘fixes’ social, economic, and environmental externalities. This provides grounds to critique the legal and regulatory context in Norwegian aquaculture, which I argue amplifies profitability goals while underemphasizing fish welfare.