Mowi puts NOK 500 price on the head of fish after 27,000 escape in Norway

Salmon farmer Mowi Norway is offering a bounty of NOK 500 (£36) per fish to registered fishers who catch salmon that escaped from a pen at one of the company’s farms after a mooring caught fire on Sunday night.

Mowi estimates that approximately 27,000 salmon with an average weight of 5.5kg escaped from its Storvika V site in Dyrøy, Troms.

The company’s communications director, Ola Helge Hjetland, said on Sunday that there was ongoing, extensive activity at the site to repair the damage and minimise the extent of the incident, but that conditions were very demanding with high winds.

He informed Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, that the company had been receiving assistance from several vessels on site, including the Coast Guard ship KV Svalbard.

Ship used as a breakwater

“The Coast Guard acts as a breakwater so that others can carry out work on the cage in the demanding weather,” he said.

Recapturing of fish is initially only allowed within a 500-metre zone around a farm in the event of escapes, but the government’s Fisheries Directorate can waive that rule if the escape is a big one.

“Based on the fact that this could be a major escape, Mowi has received a verbal order from the directorate to conduct recapture fishing outside the 500-meter zone,” Fisheries Directorate communications director Anette Aase told Kyst.no.

Mowi has expressed its thanks to the Coast Guard ship Svalbard, and service boat operators AQS, Frøy, and Finnsnes Dykk og Anleggsservice, in addition to its own employees, for their help at the site.

Fish caught by registered fishermen can be delivered to fish reception centres in various municipalities, the company said.