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What is LaksAtlas?

LaksAtlas is an interactive transparency dashboard for Norwegian salmon and trout aquaculture. It visualises live and historical fish health data — sea lice levels, disease outbreaks, escape events, and environmental indicators — sourced directly from Norwegian government APIs and official reports.

The goal is simple: take data that exists in government databases and make it readable, visual, and meaningful — for students, researchers, and anyone curious about the Norwegian salmon farming industry.

Beyond Norway, LaksAtlas also includes a Global Aquaculture Explorer built on FAO FishStatJ data covering 220 countries and over 4,000 species from 1950 to 2024. This places Norwegian aquaculture in a global context — showing how Norway compares to the world's largest producers, how production has shifted between species and regions over seven decades, and where aquaculture is growing fastest today.

Primary use
Educational tool for university students
Fish Physiology — Nord University
Norwegian data
2012 — present
Updated weekly via Barentswatch API
Global data
1950 — 2024
220 countries · 4,000+ species via FAO FishStatJ

Built for the classroom

LaksAtlas was built as a digital learning tool for students enrolled in Fish Physiology at Nord University. The course covers the biology and welfare of farmed fish, and sea lice, disease, and environmental stress are central topics.

Rather than reading static tables in a textbook, students can explore the actual farm-level data — see which farms are above the lice treatment threshold this week, where disease outbreaks are occurring, and how trends have developed year over year.

The Global Aquaculture Explorer adds a broader dimension: students can compare Norway's salmon production against aquaculture industries worldwide, explore which species dominate in different regions, and understand how global food production from water has grown from under one million tonnes in 1950 to over 130 million tonnes today.

The live map, health overview, historical comparisons, and global explorer are all designed with classroom discussion in mind — not as a professional monitoring tool.

Where the data comes from

All data used in LaksAtlas is sourced from publicly available databases and official reports — Norwegian government APIs and annual publications for the national view, and the FAO FishStatJ dataset for global production. No proprietary or commercially licensed data is used.

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Barentswatch Fishhealth API
The primary live data source. Provides weekly farm-level data for all Norwegian salmon and trout localities — sea lice counts, disease flags, treatment records, sea temperature, and fallow status. Also provides national summary statistics and annual aggregates back to 2012.
barentswatch.no ↗
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Fiskeridirektoratet — Official Statistics
The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries publishes annual statistics on fish loss, production volumes, and escape events. Used for mortality figures on the overview pages.
fiskeridir.no/statistikk-om-akvakultur ↗
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Fiskehelserapporten — Norwegian Veterinary Institute
Annual fish health reports published by Veterinærinstituttet. Used for contextual interpretation of disease trends, ISA and PD outbreaks, and lice situation summaries. PDF reports from 2020–2025 are referenced.
vetinst.no ↗
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FAO FishStatJ — Global Aquaculture Production
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations publishes global aquaculture production data through FishStatJ. Covers quantity (tonnes) and value (USD) for all species and countries from 1950 to 2024. Used as the primary data source for the Global Aquaculture Explorer.
fao.org/fishery/fishstatj ↗
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Leaflet.js + OpenStreetMap
Map tiles and interactive mapping provided by Leaflet.js (open source) using OpenStreetMap data. Farm coordinates are sourced from the Barentswatch API.
leafletjs.com ↗    openstreetmap.org ↗
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Chart.js
All charts and visualisations are built with Chart.js, an open-source JavaScript charting library.
chartjs.org ↗

Accuracy & limitations

LaksAtlas visualises publicly available data and aims to present it faithfully. However, it is not a regulatory or monitoring tool and should not be used as one. Data may be delayed, incomplete, or contain errors that originate from the source databases.

Important notice

This website has no commercial purpose and is built solely for educational use in the context of Fish Physiology coursework at Nord University. No data is sold, licensed, or used for commercial gain. All source data remains the property of the respective government agencies and institutions.

If you notice incorrect information, outdated figures, or have any questions about the content, please reach out directly.

Get in touch

LaksAtlas was designed and built by Miiro Virtanen as a student resource for the Fish Physiology course at Nord University. For corrections, questions, or feedback about the site or its data — please send an email.

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Miiro Virtanen
PhD, Fish Physiology & Welfare — Nord University
✉ miiro.i.virtanen@nord.no