Aquaculture in the Nordic countries has, until now, focused on cold-water salmonid species such as Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout and Arctic charr. Farming is performed mainly in intensive, high technology systems in either floating cages or in constructed earth ponds.

Different countries have specialized in different areas, e.g. Norway produce Atlantic salmon in large (500-3.000 tons) sea based cage farms, in combination with landbased freshwater smolt production. In Denmark, freshwater earth pond farming of portion sized to mid sized rainbow trout dominates, while in both Sweden and Finland smaller (50-500 tons) fresh and brackish water cage farming of large rainbow trout dominates.

Farming of Arctic charr is a rather large industry in Sweden and during later years, development of farming of "new" species such as pike-perch and other white fishes have been of interest in Sweden and Finland. At the same time farming of marine fishes like halibut and cod has been focused in Norway and Iceland. Perch, turbot and cod are new species in Danish aquaculture.

In research and education Norway is leading within the fields of aquaculture breeding, nutrition, production, technology and aquatic medicine, Denmark in freshwater diseases/parasitology, and fish quality. Iceland has excelled in landbased recirculation farming and natural fresh water arctic fish ecosystems, while Sweden's specialty is fish behavior, feeding management, freshwater fisheries management and domestication interactions of enhanced populations.

These specializations in research and education are the strength of the Nordic Aquaculture Network, since it allows the network to offer students a large variety of courses, programmes and specializations. It is possible for students with different background to both broaden their knowledge and specialize in a broad range of aquaculture related topics.