Reward offered for finding 27,000 escaped salmon
Mowi Offering Reward for Capturing Escaped Salmon in Norway
Mowi, a major fish farming company in Norway, is offering a reward of 500 Norwegian crowns for each salmon that escaped from one of their cages. This move has been met with criticism from environmental campaignists, who have described it as “a disaster for wild salmon”.
The incident occurred when the outer ring of a cage at the Storvika V plant in the Troms region was damaged during stormy weather, causing the fish to escape. The average weight of the fleeing fish was reported to be 5.5 kilograms.
Following the escape, the Norway Fishing Office has instructed fishers to expand their efforts to capture the escaped salmon. Typically, fish farmers were only allowed to gather illegal fish within a 500-meter radius of the farm. However, in this case, efforts are being encouraged to spread beyond these boundaries.
Mowi has acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and has urged registered fishermen to deliver any captured fish to designated “fish acceptance centers”. Campaignists have raised concerns about the environmental impact of illegal salmon on wild populations, citing reduced genetic diversity, increased risk of infection with sea lice, and competition for reproductive areas.
This incident comes on the heels of last summer’s ban on salmon hunting in 33 rivers in Norway due to declining wild salmon numbers. Experts in Norway have emphasized the threat that escaped farm salmon pose to wild populations, noting that hybridization between the two types reduces survival rates in nature.
Efforts are now underway to contain the escaped salmon and mitigate their impact on the local ecosystem, with both Mowi and local authorities working to address the situation.
