When Vegaøyan was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2004, the World Heritage Committee requested that the boundary between conservation and sustainable development with regard to aquaculture be clarified.

When Vega Municipality adopted the Helgeland Coastal Plan in 2014 with two new fish farming locations in the World Heritage Area, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the State Administrator of Nordland objected to the plan. The objection authorities believed that the consequences of aquaculture in the World Heritage area had not been sufficiently investigated. Vega Municipality therefore commissioned a study from Instead Heritage, which has been used by UNESCO in its work on guidelines for following up on the World Heritage Convention. The impact study was published in the autumn of 2022 and did not recommend aquaculture in the World Heritage area. Vega Municipality nevertheless adopted the Helgeland Coastal Plan with the two locations when it was out for the 4th hearing and the Directorate for Cultural Heritage and the State Administrator thus maintained his objections.

Now a final decision will be made by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development whether the plan should be approved with the two locations. Before the decision was made, representatives from the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Ministry of Climate and Environment and the Ministry of Fisheries, as well as Nordland County Council, the State Administrator of Nordland, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage , the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Norwegian Fisheries Agency and the municipality of Vega met on 21 March to present their views on the relationship between aquaculture and world heritage. The meeting was followed by a visit to the world heritage site, which most of the participants in the meeting were able to participate in. Along the way, the participants received information from Mayor André Møller, Technical Manager Anders Karlsson and World Heritage Coordinator Rita Johansen.

The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development will have a decision ready within the next few weeks. It cannot be appealed.