On November 21, her 60th birthday, Björk filed a lawsuit against the Icelandic state over sea-based fish farming practices in the country.
The case is one of four legal actions being pursued by AEGIS, the environmental group Björk founded two years ago around the time she released her collaboration with Rosalía, the song “Oral.” All proceeds from that track have gone directly toward funding AEGIS’s work.
In a recent Instagram post, Björk and AEGIS laid out exactly what those funds have been used for. The four cases cover support for residents of Seyðisfjörður who are trying to block a fish farm licence in their community, a legal review of marine spatial planning in the area, the Icelandic Wildlife Fund’s bid to annul fish farm permits in Tálknafjörður and Patreksfjörður, and a formal summons against the Icelandic state to halt a fish farm in Sandeyri — one that was established against the wishes of local residents.
It is a coordinated push on multiple fronts, and it signals how seriously Björk is treating the tension between industrial aquaculture and Iceland’s coastal ecosystems.
