Lofoten codfish officially declared air hazards by Norwegian CAA

It's official: the Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration has declared Lofoten codfish a threat to flight safety at the Svolver Airport. Avinor, as the country's CAA is known, owns the airport, and is completely opposed to a plan to store live codfish in enclosures near the airport's runway.

The problem is not actually the codfish, but the birds that Avinor says the tanks will attract. "The probability of a collision between planes and sea birds will increase dramatically," Avinor airport manager Bjorn Opsahl said at a hearing. He is conmvinced that the fish in the tanks will be a temptation that the birds will not want to avoid.

The plan to put the fish into tanks near the airport was an idea hatched by local businesses who had hoped to create a cooperative and increase business by putting live Lofoten codfish in the tanks. The idea was to increase profits by using the tanks to deliver fresh codfish year-round.

The business owners are not impressed by the Avinor argument. "It sounds a bit strange that gulls and other sea birds are going eat such big fish," said Ole Osland.

FMI: www.avinor.no (Norwegian web site)