Five million improved cod larvae by helicopter

Transport along country roads from Tromsø to Lofoten would have caused considerable stress for the cod larvae, so the solution was a helicopter flight.

Staff at the National Cod Breeding Centre on Kvaløya near Tromsø needed to clear the car park to make space for the chartered helicopter.

The helicopter was filled to the brim with 40 cases containing a total of five million live cod larvae swimming in salt water.

The actual flight to the Lofitorsk facility for cod fry at Steine in Lofoten took less than one hour.

"If they had been transported along the country roads, it would have taken at least seven times as long and that would not have been good for the cod larvae", says Scientist Øyvind J. Hansen at Nofima Marine in Tromsø.

This is the first time the National Cod Breeding Centre has dispatched cod larvae by helicopter.

New, improved cod

The cod larvae are from Nofima´s breeding centre for cod near Tromsø.

The National Cod Breeding Programme was established in 2003. The objective is to achieve farmed cod which grow more rapidly than their fellow species in the wild.

The breeding centre provides a continuous supply of cod eggs and fry to commercial fish farms.