Mowi fined for insufficient care in clearing ISA site
The world’s biggest salmon farmer, Mowi, has been fined NOK 800,000 (£67,000) after it was deemed to be insufficiently careful when emptying a site in Norway where fish had been found to have infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).
The fine was issued by the Troms chief of police after notification from the Directorate of Fisheries and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.
In a statement on its website, the Directorate said the background for the report was an incident in connection with the emptying of locality Storvika V in Dyrøy municipality. On 16 April 2020, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority made a decision to empty the site by 1 June 2020 as a result of ISA being detected there.
In May 2020, an employee cut a hole in the bottom of a seine bag and released a small number of dead fish into the sea. There were also no risk assessments, procedures and training that provided sufficient guidance for emptying cages during site closures when there was a risk of spreading infectious animal disease. Mowi has accepted the fine.
