"I have been working to try to save wild salmon around the world for many years. I have been a fly fis­herman for almost 80 years and have fis­hed in Iceland, Russia, Canada, and elsewhere. I love salmon, and it is part of Pata­gonia's mission to do our part in trying to save our home planet  and everyt­hing that belongs to it," says Yvon Chouinard, founder of the American clothing company Pata­gonia, when asked about the documentary about open-net salmon farm­ing in Iceland that the company made and premi­ered in early February. Yvon granted Heim­ildin an interview following the premi­ere to put the mak­ing of the film into context.

Yvon is now 85 years old and has been coming to Iceland reg­ul­arly since 1960, when he was in his early twenties. "Open-net salmon farm­ing in Iceland is the next logical place to fight. This is a war and we beli­eve we can win it," he says about the fight aga­inst open-net salmon farm­ing, globally.

Has great faith in film

He says he has great faith in film as an art form to influence people for a specific pur­pose. "We provide grants to organizations and indi­vi­du­als around the world, but sometimes it's just much more effective to make a documentary. Your emotions affect you. If you read a book, you don't get as emotionally moved as when you see a movie."

The documentary about Iceland is just one of many films Pata­gonia makes. The company has also made films about environ­mental issues such as dams and their impact on nat­ure. "Films are a very powerful tool, and at Pata­gonia, we make many films every year about how we can save our nat­ure. If we were to make a film about salmon farm­ing in the world in general, it would not be as impactful in Iceland as mak­ing a film that focuses on the situation Iceland. If we want to talk about the problems of salmon farm­ing in Tasmania, we make a film that is just about the problems in Tasmania."

Surprised by the state of Icelandic salmon rivers

Yvon and Pata­gonia have been directly invol­ved in fight­ing aga­inst open-net salmon farm­ing in Iceland, and in many other places, for many years. Both Yvon and Pata­gonia's CEO, Ryan Gellert, recently wrote comments on Svandís Svav­ars­dóttir's bill on fish farm­ing in Iceland.

The last time Yvon came to Iceland, in the sum­mer of 2022, he met with Guðni Th. Jóhann­es­son, the Pres­ident of Iceland, and discussed open-net salmon farm­ing with him, in addition to fis­hing in several salmon rivers, including Laxá in Aðal­dalur. "I was stunned to see how much salmon fis­hing in Iceland has declined. I don't rem­em­ber if I even caught a salmon on this trip. In comparison, I fish for salmon in Labrador every year, and last year I caught more than 100 salmon in eleven days. In Iceland, it has become such that in a week you might catch 2 or 3 salmon," he says.

Yvon says he has fis­hed in eight to ten salmon rivers in Iceland over the years and that his favorite river is Haf­fjarð­ará in Snæ­fells­nes, where he caught the most memora­ble salmon he has caught in the country. "I once caught a 20-pound salmon on a small fly called Madel­eine in Haf­fjarð­ará. It's a size 20 treble hook, with only five bear hairs on it. Nothing else. I hitched it on the surface and made a small V with the fly. It was amazing, and this is a very large fish for this river," he says.

Gave the company and funds the fight for environmental protection

Pata­gonia is a world-renowned clothing brand that produces outdoor clothing for  silent sports such as climbing, surf­ing, and fly fis­hing. The company is known for its invol­vem­ent in the environ­mental debate, and its campaigns have garn­ered much attention over the years.

One of them, placed in the New York Times on Black Friday 2011, was about ask­ing people to refrain from buy­ing the company's products because then they could contribute to the fight aga­inst over-consumption and global warming. "Don't buy this jacket," the ad read, alongside a photo of a Pata­gonia jacket.

Yvon Chouinard him­self made global hea­d­lines in Sept­em­ber 2022  when he made earth the company’s only shareholder, creating a new business structure so that every dollar that is not rein­ve­sted back into Pata­gonia would be distri­buted as dividends to supp­ort environ­mental issues, including the "war aga­inst open-net salmon farm­ing," as Yvon puts it to Heim­ildin.

What motivates Yvon and Patagonia in Iceland?

When asked why he and Pata­gonia are fight­ing aga­inst open-net salmon farm­ing in Iceland, Yvon says it is possi­ble to achieve success in that fight. "The state of environ­mental issues in the world is so bad that you need to work to see the positives. One of the problems with supp­ort­ing activism is that it is so rare to have real victories, which can be really depress­ing. However, I think it is a realistic goal to rid the world of open-net salmon farm­ing."

One of the things Yvon always dwells on when he talks about Iceland is that democracy works well in the country, the people are well-educated and infor­med, and this helps him beli­eve that it is possi­ble to ban salmon farm­ing in the country. Yvon says he is ther­efore enga­ged in a fight he beli­eves in. "We have mana­ged to get open-net salmon farm­ing thrown out of Argent­ina, we are succeeding in doing the same in the state of Maine in the United States, we are working on gett­ing it banned on the East and West Coasts of Canada, in Tasmania, and in Iceland. I think it is a realistic goal for open-net salmon farm­ing to be banned in Iceland. This is a fight we can win. Iceland is a small country with few inhabit­ants and vot­ers who are well-educated and infor­med and listen to science."

Thinks a a ban is possi­bleYvon Chouinard, here to the far left, beli­eves that it is possi­ble to ban salmon farm­ing in open-net pens in Iceland. With Yvon on the photo, taken in Laxá in Kjós, are Ingó Ásgeirs­son and Jasper Paakkönen.

Iceland as an example because of informed voters

He says he often uses Iceland as a para­ble when he gives speeches around the world, as he considers it to be more evol­ved than the United States in certain aspects, including in terms of education and democracy. "The only thing you have in Iceland is hot and cold water and fish. There are no trees, no for­estry, mining, or anyt­hing. When you look at natural resources, Iceland has very little. Then you look at the United States, which has so many resources, but we squander them. The roads in Iceland are good, they are not potholed, but in comparison, the roads in the United States are terri­ble. Iceland is an example of a country that knows its limitations and works with the little it has. In my mind, Iceland is a role model for other countries in the world. We Americans don't realize our limitations. We have always looked further west when we have needed more natural resources. Now we are constantly looking for more natural resources all over  the world to abuse. We don't und­er­stand that there are limits to how far we can go. When you live on an island like Iceland, I think you und­er­stand better that there are limits to how much you can encroach on nat­ure. "

Yvon cites as an example that for a long time, the Prime Minister of Iceland was simply listed in the phone book, and people could find his num­ber and call him. This is a detail that has often caught the attention of for­eigners, such as journalists, who have come here. In most other countries, it is almost impossi­ble to call mini­sters directly and talk to them without intermedi­aries.

Ate cod for every meal at the seamen's home

Having come to Iceland so often over the years, Yvon has various amus­ing stor­ies to tell about the country. One of them is about his first visit to the country in 1960. As Yvon has recounted in books he has written, he was poor as a young man; slept outdoors under the open sky and ate pet food and even porcupines. At times, he lived a life reminiscent of a vagr­ant's existence and was arre­sted in the United States for app­e­ar­ing to be a drifter.

He was in this state during his first visit to Iceland when his life largely revol­ved around climbing and hik­ing. "When I first came to Iceland, I was a young climber on my way to the Alps. I came with Icelandair and decided to look around Iceland because I had a stopover here. Of course, I had no money, so the first day I stayed on the stone floor of the hangar in my sleeping bag."

Yvon then hea­ded to Reykja­vík but realized that there wasn't much to be found there. "The next day, I hitchhiked a ride to Reykja­vík. At that time, there were no lights in Reykja­vík after eight o'clock in the even­ing. There were no restaurants in the city, and I had no money, so I had to eat at the sea­men's home.  I ate cod in the morn­ing, cod for lunch, and cod in the even­ing. It was amazing, it was such a long time ago."

Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Yvon founded Pata­gonia, star­t­ing out by design­ing specialized climbing equipment, and things started roll­ing for him, even though he never has had a particular inter­est in being rich.

Science and reason

After Pata­gonia's documentary about open-net salmon farm­ing premi­ered, it was criticized by the CEO of the Norwegian salmon farm­ing company Mowi, the largest shareholder of the salmon farm­ing company Arctic Fish in the small town of Ísa­fjörður in Iceland. In an interview with the Norwegian seafood newspaper Intra­fish, the CEO, Ivan Vindheim, said he beli­eves that "rea­son will prevail" in Iceland and elsewhere in the world and that open-net salmon farm­ing will thrive. The hea­d­line of the article about Mowi's criticism was that Mowi is not afraid of "Pata­gonia's attack on salmon farm­ing in Iceland".

When asked about these comments by Ivan Vindheim, Yvon says he is of the opinion that science will prevail, and open-net salmon farm­ing will not be viable based on the scientific find­ings about its harm­ful­ness. "I think science will prevail, which is a bit differ­ent from rea­son in my mind. If you listen to the science, it simply doesn't add up in any way that we are engag­ing in open-net salmon farm­ing. Four books have been publ­is­hed recently about the harm­ful­ness of open-net salmon farm­ing. Their conclusion is simply that there is no right way to do this in the sea. It's not about mitigation mea­sures or fix­ing this industry in some way. It's just not possi­ble to do open -net salmon farm­ing in a correct and susta­ina­ble manner."

The difference between rea­son and science in this debate is that science does not take into account financial and reg­ional develop­ment argu­ments, but salmon farm­ing in open-net pens in Iceland is primarily justified by these factors. Sometimes these argu­ments are refer­red to as "mitigation mea­sures" to strengt­hen the spar­sely populated reg­ions of the Westfjords and East­fjords, where salmon farm­ing takes place. Yvon does not beli­eve in these argu­ments in the long run and beli­eves that science will prevail as production met­hods for far­med fish that are more susta­ina­ble and environ­mentally fri­endly than open-net farm­ing will emerge.

Invests in land-based farming, which he considers more sustainable

Instead of open-net salmon­farm­ing, Yvon Chouinard beli­eves that land-based salmon farm­ing is the way to go. "We have another option, which is to farm salmon on land in a susta­ina­ble way. It is not possi­ble to farm salmon in the sea in any way without causing damage to nat­ure."

Yvon has per­sonally inve­sted in land-based salmon farm­ing in the United States. This has been covered in for­eign seafood media. He says he did not do this to make money but to supp­ort the develop­ment of land-based farm­ing as an industry. "I didn't invest in this to make money. I did it to guide them in mak­ing land-based farm­ing as susta­ina­ble as possi­ble. As far as I know, this is the only salmon farm in the world that has no environ­mental impact, it doesn't pollute at all."

A big part of this work is to create feed for the far­med salmon that does not come from the animal kingdom. Today, the feed that far­med salmon eat comes mainly from the sea, from pelagic fish that are tur­ned into meal. "We are working to improve where the feed for the salmon comes from because it is irresponsi­ble to catch sar­di­nes, herr­ing, anchovies and mackerel all over the world to produce feed for far­med salmon. We are working to develop our own feed for land-far­med salmon by growing veget­arian fish in rice fields in Argent­ina. The fish only feed on plankton and rice, and we make feed from these fish and add black soldier fly larvae that feed on agricultural waste . So all the feed is from waste, and we give this to the salmon and it grows 25 percent faster, and we are not using the sea to grow the salmon."

Yvon says this is the path that needs to be taken to get open-net pen  farm­ing companies to stop doing it: Companies need to be shown that other, more susta­ina­ble ways of producing far­med salmon are possi­ble. "If you corner a tiger, it will fight to its death unless you give it some other way out. There is a possi­bility for open-net salmon farm­ing companies to take it on land: We don't need to farm in the sea. It will also help that consumers will realize that they are eat­ing a toxic product when they eat salmon that is far­med in opnen net-pens," says Yvon, referr­ing again to his belief that the fight to stop to open-net salmon farm­ing beg­ins and ends with the public: The citizens who control whether it will be banned here In Iceland, and elsewhere, or not.