Last autumn, something went wrong at a fish farm at Stad in Nordfjord, where shortly after delousing, the salmon began to die in large numbers. The fish had major problems with their gills and did not get enough oxygen, and within a few weeks, nearly 300,000 farmed salmon died, with in some of the cages, almost half of all the fish perishing. The salmon deaths began in week 33, and in week 35, two cages were slaughtered out.
There was a bloom of harmful algae in the water, which turned out to be the main cause of the disease. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) conducted an inspection when the facility was slaughtered out, and they were met by clearly weakened salmon. It still took five weeks before all the fish were slaughtered out, and after all the fish were slaughtered, Mattilsynet decided to drop the case.
Mattilsynet wrote in an email to Mowi that they would not carry out a document review in this case. Now Mattilsynet acknowledges that the fish were not doing well, and although the specific case did not have a follow-up from Mattilsynet, the incident became part of a larger revision of the company. In principle, farmed fish have the same legal protection as livestock on land, such as sheep or cows, and the law requires that fish be killed when necessary.
Now the foundation Dyrevernalliansen has reported the case to the police, with Dyrevernalliansen believing Mowi broke the law when they did not slaughter the fish earlier. The head of the department at Mattilsynet will not determine whether Mowi did right or wrong. Mowi is taking the police report under advisement and will await the police's handling of the case.
Such jellyfish or algae attacks occur very rarely, but when they occur, they unfortunately affect the fish's welfare because it has problems with its gills, and Mowi decided to kill and slaughter out the fish as quickly as possible. Such incidents are beyond their control, but it is important to handle them as well as possible. It is dramatic and tough for the employees who work closely with the fish on a daily basis, and the employees at Rundereimstranda and our partners handled the incident well.