The development of the applied solutions from the late 1980s until today are analyzed and recommendations to future strategies at company level and policy level are provided. It is concluded that significant environmental improvements have been obtained for the analysed companies – especially concerning reductions in water consumption, wastewater emissions, and utilization of fish ‘waste’ for valuable by-products. Still, more focus could be placed on the reduction of energy consumption, change of packaging types, and environmental impacts in other stages of the products life cycle. Authorities and companies have mainly focused on on-site reductions of wastewater emissions, but life cycle assessments show that more attention should be given to the reductions of environmental impacts in other parts of the product chain, e.g. fishing operations and transport as well. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.