The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries has reported an escape at a Vestvågøy, Norway-based farm owned by aquaculture firm Isqueen and is calling on the public to help report sightings of farmed salmon as recovery operations continue.
The company reported major damage to a sea cage at its Gamskjæran location to the directorate on 12 September. The directorate then said it was too early to assess the number of fish that had escaped but that roughly 80 escaped salmon had been caught so far and that the salmon in the damaged cage weighed approximately 2 kilograms each.
Separately, the directorate also announced its victory in a court case related to a 2022 escape at Aller Aqua Norway's Sogn location.
The company lost roughly 35,000 salmon from that facility on 28 and 29 October 2022. The escape occurred while the salmon were being loaded onto a wellboat.
The Directorate of Fisheries found discrepancies in the company’s account on a follow-up inspection, ultimately concluding that the escape had been caused by the company’s failure to conduct thorough risk assessments before bringing the vessel into the vicinity of the sea cage. The vessel’s propellers, it said, were the cause of the crack in the sea cage, which allowed the fish to escape.
The escape was especially serious, the directorate said, because of the condition of the fish in the cage.
“Some of the escaped fish were sick with [pancreatic disease], were sexually mature, and, thus, had a greater potential for harm than fish that are not sexually mature,” the directorate said. "The fact that the escape occurred during the spawning period for wild salmon in a national salmon fjord also underlines the seriousness of the escape case."
The directorate ultimately referred the case to the police, who issued Aller Aqua a NOK 4.5 million fine (USD 450,000, EUR 386,000). The case then went to court when Aller Aqua refused to pay the fine.
The Sogn og Fjordane District Court has now ruled on the case, lowering the company’s fine to NOK 2.7 million (USD 273,000, EUR 232,000). Aller Aqua has also been ordered to pay legal fees amounting to NOK 100,000 (USD 10,100, EUR 8,580).
Directorate of Fisheries Director Frank Bakke-Jensen called the decision a "thorough verdict that established important principles in the supervision and response work we will conduct going forward. "
"The company was not convicted of a serious violation, and the fine has been reduced, but otherwise, the verdict is in our favor on all points," he said. "The case is also a good example of good interdisciplinary cooperation between our sections and between us and the police."
