Global seafood company Mowi is offering rewards to fishermen who catch escaped salmon after nearly 27 fish disappeared from a farm off the coast of Norway in what campaigners have described as a “disaster for wild salmon”.
The world's largest farmed salmon producer is offering a reward of 105 kronor ($500) per salmon caught after it said a quarter of its 44 salmon population escaped from a cage in Troms, northwestern Norway.
The escape was reported by Mowi on Sunday, and damage was detected to the outer ring of a cage in stormy weather at the Storvika V facility in the Dyrøy municipality in Troms, the Norwegian fisheries directorate said. The average weight of the escaped fish was 5,5kg, they said.
Norwegian authorities were there to inspect the facility on Monday and ordered the company to expand its efforts to recapture the fish.
Fisheries directorate spokesman Vegard Oen Hatten said: “Normally, fish farmers are allowed to conduct recapture operations within a 500-metre zone around the facility in the event of an escape. However, based on the potential scale of this incident, Mowi has been instructed to extend recapture efforts beyond this zone.”
Mowi said it was a “serious and very regrettable situation” and that fish caught by registered fishermen could be delivered to fish “reception centres” in the region for a reward of 500 kronor.
Campaigners say escaped salmon are causing major environmental problems, endangering wild salmon by reducing their genetic diversity, increasing sea lice infestation and intensifying competition for spawning grounds.
In Norway, which exports 1,2 million tonnes of farmed salmon a year, the problem has reached such a point that last summer wild salmon numbers hit a historic low, resulting in 33 rivers being closed to salmon fishing. This summer, 42 rivers and three fjords are proposed to be closed.
“The escape of 27 farmed salmon is a disaster for wild salmon,” said Pål Mugaas, spokesman for Norske Lakseelver (Norwegian Salmon Rivers).
“Science has proven that crossbreeding between wild stocks and farmed salmon produces offspring with low long-term survival rates in nature.”
The Norwegian scientific advisory committee for Atlantic salmon has classified escaped farmed salmon as one of the biggest threats to wild salmon. Two-thirds of wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Norway are believed to be genetically interacting with escaped farmed salmon.
Despite acknowledging that wild North Atlantic salmon are under “existential threat”, Norwegian Environment Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen last month rejected a ban on open-net fishing at sea.
Instead, he said he plans to seek “an acceptable level of pollution” for the wild salmon population.
"This is very sad and should not have happened," Mowi spokesperson Ola Helge Hjetland told VG newspaper.
