Mowi hit by large escape in northern Norway

The country’s Directorate of Fisheries said on Monday that the incident took place more than a month ago, in early May. The location of the incident is Herøy municipality in Nordland.

Damage was discovered in a seine net. Mowi has reported that an estimated 14,500 salmon are missing from the site but adds there is uncertainty surrounding that figure.

The Directorate said Mowi has deployed a recapture net at the site following the incident, and has caught three farmed salmon. The fish in the cage in question average over 4 kg in weight.

The Directorate has ordered Mowi to conduct a count to clarify the extent of the escape. It has also ordered the company to carry out environmental monitoring and removal of escaped farmed salmon in waterways after the escape. The order covers 10 waterways in the area from Halsfjorden, at the far end of Vefsnfjorden, to Ranfjorden. Two of the waterways are designated as “national salmon waterways”.

The Directorate added: “In addition to this, we [will] follow up the incident with supervision, according to normal procedure.”

It also wants the public to tip off the Directorate  about catching and observing farmed salmon in the area.

It says: “All tips are important and will be treated confidentially. We cannot always tell you exactly how the tip will be followed up, due to our duty of confidentiality. Sometimes we also need to investigate further and work with other agencies before we can follow up on the tip.”