Fiskey halibut hatchery

Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar was founded at Hjalteyri on Eyjafjörður, in North Iceland, on 28 May 1987. The 30 founders of the Company included local authorities, companies and individuals. The first year was spent on research and preparations for planned rearing of halibut. Studies were made of marine environmental factors in Eyjafjörður, such as water temperature, salinity and oxygen content, as well as of the species composition and distribution of zooplankton in the fjord. Investigations were also carried out of the feasibility of local conditions in Hjalteyri for developing production of halibut juveniles. Finally, young halibut averaging about 1.5 kg in weight were collected, in order to study how they flourished under conditions like those in Eyjafjörður. Following this preparatory research, the results were presented at the Company?s AGM in June 1988 and a decision taken to begin production of halibut juveniles.

Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar?s activities were characterised by R&D work until the end of the last decade, by which time the major obstacles to juvenile production had been overcome. The first farmed halibut production was sold in 1999, and the objectives set for the undertaking in 1988 thus achieved. Partly because of this success, Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar was awarded the 2001 Innovation Prize by RANNÍS (the Icelandic Research Council) and the Trade Council of Iceland. Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar received the award for its many years of research work and production of farmed halibut. In addition, the Employment Committee of the town of Akureyri voted Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar Company of the Year for 2000. In 1999 the Employment Committee also awarded Ólafur Halldórsson, the Company?s managing director at the time, special recognition for his work.

The Company has developed steadily, in parallel to the increasing know-how and expertise it has accumulated. The Company?s many years of research is now paying dividends in its increasing production of juveniles and market-size halibut for export. In 2001, the share of Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar in global production of halibut juveniles was around 35%, according to SINTEF 1 estimates, in a total of some 25 juvenile stations in Norway, Scotland and Canada.

Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar has been increasingly successful in making inroads abroad; at year-end 2002 it owned shares in the aquaculture undertaking Scotian Halibut, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar established this company in 1997 together with the Canadian company Cape Halibut
Investments Ltd. (CHIL). Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar owns 50% of the company and CHIL the other half. Scotian Halibut?s objective is to produce juveniles and farmed halibut for markets in North America. Because of plans for further co-operation abroad, a Board meeting on 22 February 2002 decided to
establish a subsidiary of Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar to be called Fiskey. The documents establishing the company were signed by the Board of Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar on 28 February 2002 and the Company?s establishment approved by a shareholders? meeting the same day. The objectives of Fiskeldi
Eyjafjarðar were also altered at this shareholders? meeting. The first step in the direction of cod juvenile rearing has now been taken through a co-operation agreement between Fiskeldi Eyjafjarðar, Fiskey, Stofnfiskur hf. (Stofnfiskur), Þorskur á Þurru Landi ehf. (ÞÞL) and the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, signed on 16 January 2003. These undertakings are expected to set up a special company for this operation.

Few months ago Fiskey was listed on the Icelandic stock exchange first of the Icelandic aquaulture companies.