It’s not complicated, but the scenario you describe has several costs for not much apparent benefit. There’s the cost of transport from the Pacific to Norway. The storage cost for that transit time. The labour cost within Norway, which is very high. There’s also the risk of negative publicity for all those food miles. Is there any other benefit besides the marketing impact of the “Imported from Norway” phrase? I’m skeptical this scenario is actually happening.
isnt pacific cod aka “rock cod”?
No, the name “rock cod” is more often used to refer to fishes in the genus Sebastes, which are members of the notorious scorpionfish family. Many of them are very tasty and in CA if you get fresh fish and chips on the coast, that’s usually what they’re made out of. They also were sometime found listed on menus on the West coast as ersatz red snapper when red snapper was a thing (under the deceptive name ‘Pacific red snapper’ - these were often bocaccio, though there are a bunch of reddish rockfish)
Pacific cod are actual “true cod”, kissing cousins to the classic Atlantic cod - both in the genus Gadus in the “cod family” along with haddock and pollock (two more heavily fished frequent cod substitutes).
ahh ok i went on a couple of ocean fishing day trips and that’s what we were looking for
They’re delicious. Everybody loves rockfish 
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That’s a brown rockfish (Sebastes auriculatus), joining that great blue heron for lunch. You don’t want to get poked by those back spines by the way - they’re mildly venomous and kinda hurty in true scorpionfish style.
Oh and yet more rockcod. That’s problem with fish - no regulation of common names. At least the birders are very specific about what is what. With fish you never know what’s actually a sheepshead.
If the ship is returning to Norway eventually there’s not much additional cost. The Norwegians want to eat fish from the Pacific also. They aren’t doing it to slap a label on, they label it because they have it to sell.
Why would the fish-factory ship be returning to Norway? Those ships are built to be at sea as much as possible. Okay, it will eventually require shipyard maintenance and refit and perhaps the best place to do that could be the place where it was built. But that’s something that occurs every several years. Are you speculating that the fish being packaged and exported in Norway was based on an eventual occurrence, rather than the usual, lower-cost business practice?
I visited Norway and ate a fair amount of seafood and fish, but everything I remember seeing was local. That’s poor testimony because 1) I ate in restaurants and went to ones that featured Norwegian cuisine, and 2) the restaurants didn’t state their fish’s provenance on the menu. I’d expect there would be restaurants or supermarkets in Norway selling Chilean seabass or other Pacific fish not available in the North Atlantic. One of those might be Black Cod which is an entirely different family to Pacific Cod, even if they live in the same ocean. But Pacific Cod as an alternative to Atlantic Cod? Why? And even if they were going to import it, why would they export it back across the Atlantic?
I’m really missing the (relatively) fresh fish on the west coast already. I bought a piece of Alaska halibut at a local store ($32/lb!) and it had a really fishy smell. Then I got a piece of Alaska sockeye and had the same issue. They should just leave it frozen instead of thawing it and letting it sit in a display case.
As per DrDeth’s link - Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) is imported to Norway from the US.
and
Klipfish of pacific cod is used in the same manner as Norwegian cod, although Norwegian cod is of higher quality. Pacific cod is a cheaper alternative.
How imported Pacific cod is cheaper than local Atlantic cod is a mystery to me, but that link argues it is.
Thanks. I missed that link. I’m wrong.
ETA, while I will acknowledge I’ve lost the argument, this scenario still seems bewildering. The fish product in question is dried salted pacific cod. I associate salted cod with Spain/Portugal and the Caribbean. Outside of those heritage groups, or their fans, and I guess I should include Norwegian/Scandinavian heritage, do many Americans eat salted cod? Was that what @Ynnad bought?
Niche markets operate differently and this seems like a niche market. But it does seem weird that Pacific Cod would be sent to Norway to be processed and then sent back across the Atlantic. Seems like a business opportunity for someone in Mexico. Although, I note that Jacob-Bjorge’s website didn’t state they were exporting salted cod to the US.
The ship was the Sulak. Fun Fact: You can read a fiction book called Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith that is set on the same ship.
I was a government contractor. My job was to calculate the tonnage and species of fish caught per day. We averaged about 350 tons; I would identify about 1 1/2 tons and do the math for the rest. 3 American fishing boats fed the factory boat (we were a joint venture). The factory part was scary. Imagine a long line of circular saws with no guards. The workers would grab a fish off a conveyor and cut the head off then throw it on another conveyor. The next line would gut the fish and send it to be frozen. All this while the boat rocked. The only time it stopped was when we hit a storm with 16 foot waves.
This was just prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union so they had a political officer on board which was weird to me. The food was not good. The people were very friendly. About 10% spoke english. Good experience but a few months was enough for me.
I absolutely agree and I’m not sure you ‘lost the argument’. I find it odd that imported Pacific cod is cheaper than Atlantic cod in Norway. But okay. But I’d find it odder if imported then subsequently re-exported Pacific cod was a worthwhile source of profit for Norway unless it specifically came off a Norwegian factory boat operating off the coast of Alaska. I mean fuel costs alone…
I worked as a fisheries observer on board Polish factory ships in the early 1990’s. Yes, food was pretty crappy. You and I could swap stories!