The Salmon in Oslo is both a fish restaurant and a museum about Norway’s salmon industry. And this free museum is strangely fascinating.
A fish restaurant that’s also a salmon museum
The Salmon in Oslo’s touristy Aker Brygge area is an unusual place. It’s a fish restaurant, but it’s also a museum devoted to Norway’s second largest export industry – salmon.
This might not sound particularly gripping, but the salmon industry is one that most people know very little about – therefore, the Salmon quickly becomes strangely fascinating.
The history of salmon farming in Norway
The history of Norwegian salmon farming started in the 1970s, when wild salmon were caught from rivers to act as parent fish.
Wild Atlantic salmon were plucked from 41 different Norwegian rivers. They were picked for rapid growth, good flesh quality and good disease resistance. All farmed salmon in Norway today are descended from them.
In 1970, brothers Ove and Sivert Grontvedt released 20,000 salmon smolt at Hitra. It’s recognised as the world’s first cage-based salmon farm.
What salmon farms look like
As well as the history of salmon farming, Oslo’s salmon museum looks at the modern-day practicalities.
There’s a live feed from one of the farms on the central north coast. Salinity and oxygen of the water are controlled, and hundreds of salmon are kept in the saltwater cages.
Norwegian law decrees that a net pen must be 97.5% seawater, and never have more than 2.5% fish. The salmon must have space for exercise, which promotes muscle development and good health. The cages are placed in areas with strong currents and water circulation to ensure good water quality
The vaccination of salmon
The salmon are also vaccinated against bacterial diseases. This is a response to the disease outbreaks that became a problem in the salmon cages.
Before the vaccine was ready in the 1980s, large amounts of antibiotics were used to treat the salmon. These days, hardly any are.
The life cycle of salmon
The Salmon’s museum section also looks at the life cycle of salmon.
Fertilisation takes place in freshwater tanks, which are kept at eight degrees Celsius. The salmon hatch after approximately 60 days.
The farmed salmon spend their first year in fresh water, then biological changes allow them to live in salt water. They are transferred to the saltwater pens after 10 to 16 months.
Each fish will spend around two-and-a-half years in the fish farm, by which stage it grows to the preferred size of around five kilograms.
The value of Norway’s salmon industry
According to the Salmon, in 2018, Norway exported 1.1 million tonnes of salmon and has around 50% of the world’s salmon market. Around 95% of the salmon produced in Norway is exported.
Oslo’s best free museum?
Pretty much all I’ve written above is something I didn’t know before visiting the Salmon. This educational value is why the Salmon is worth visiting. Even if you don’t care about salmon farming, learning the detail of how such a big industry works is oddly compelling.
And best of all, this salmon museum is free. In a city which can be very expensive, this is a great selling point. There’s a strong argument for the Salmon being Oslo’s best free museum.
More Oslo travel ideas
Other Oslo experiences include fjord cruises on a silent electric catamaran, bike tours and sea kayaking adventures.
If you’ve found this article on the Salmon in Oslo helpful, check out these other Oslo pieces:
- Review of Oslo’s Kon-Tiki Museum.
- Is there a Fridtjof Nansen Museum in Oslo?
- How to see Roald Amundsen’s ship in Oslo.
- How to get to the Bygdoy Peninsula when the ferry isn’t running.
Further Norway travel articles on Planet Whitley look at whitewater rafting in Voss and what you learn on a Norwegian fjords cruise.
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