2025 Review: The Signals That Will Shape Aquaculture in 2026

What if the most important lessons from 2025 aren’t found in any single chart, but in how pressure quietly shifted across the system? In this episode, we step back from predictions and take a pattern-based look at what actually mattered over the past year in Norwegian salmon farming and what those same signals suggest we should be watching in 2026. By examining how business conditions, biological performance, environmental stress, and regulation interacted, we unpack why weak prices reshaped decision-making, why fish health improved despite record temperatures, how sea lice pressure continues to build beneath the surface, and why regulation remains the hard ceiling on growth. The goal isn’t to draw clean conclusions, but to understand trade-offs. Where risk was absorbed, where it was deferred, and where pressure is likely to surface next as the industry moves into a more constrained future. For more aquaculture insights head to our Fish n’ Bits blog.