In a study between October and November 2015 in northern Norway, bait prepared from the by-product of the shrimp and snow crab industry was employed in the pot fishery to capture cod and saithe. Frozen natural herring was used as control bait. Pots with the three bait types were placed 1,000 m apart in order to eliminate the risk of interaction between the different baits. In total 11 sampling periods were conducted. There were no significant differences in catch rates between the different baits tested on cod and saithe. The manufactured bait tested in this study showed a continuous release of odours over a 14-day period. Results show that the water content of the bait increases rapidly in the first phase of the immersion (until day 7), and the corresponding loss of bait mass (dry weight) suggest some physical disintegration (erosion) of the bait until the water content stabilizes. This study illustrates that it is possible to replace natural herring with hydrolysates from by-products from shrimp or snow crab industry in the Norwegian pot fishery of cod and saithe.

Increased complexity and interdependencies lead to problems and issues that are hard to solve. Such chronic and enduring problems are often referred to as ‘wicked problems’. This article focusses on Norwegian salmon aquaculture and addresses the problems related to the industry’s and government’s ambitions for growth in aquaculture production and the municipalities’ desire for economic compensation, usually termed area rent, from the aquaculture companies that use municipal waters for aquaculture. The government has resisted the introduction of such an area rent due to several complex institutional and distributional considerations. This complex and enduring issue is analysed here as a wicked problem, where we find that the main source of wickedness does not lie within the definition of the problem rather it’s related to the available solution as the proposed solution requires changes that are not politically viable.