Digital rendering of Arctic Offshore Farming facility.
Last November, Arctic Offshore Farming (AOF) reported major damage to the inner and outer nets of its Fellesholmen offshore fish farm. Now, after a recent count following an order from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries (Fiskeridirektoratet, Fdir, in its Norwegian name and acronym), we have learned that results show tens of thousands of salmon are missing, even when the company reports that no fish have escaped. The situation has led Norwegian authorities to speak of uncertainty surrounding this case.
It was on November 20, 2024, that Arctic Offshore Farming reported serious damage to the cage system at its Fellesholmen site in the municipality of Tromsø, Norway, where the company farms salmon under a development license.
According to information from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, the inner net was reported to have a ten-meter hole, while the outer net was found to have 1x3-meter damage. It was also said that at the time of discovery, there were approximately 766,000 salmon with an average weight of 2.1 kilograms in the affected cage.
After a several-month delay due to bad weather conditions, a fish count was recently carried out in connection with the harvesting. The results showed a discrepancy of about 42,000 fish compared to previously reported numbers.
"Nevertheless, there is uncertainty regarding the possible extent of the escape at Fellesholmen. We will therefore continue to follow up on the matter," Arnt Inge Berget, head of the aquaculture supervision and guidance section at the Directorate of Fisheries, stated in this regard.
That uncertainty alluded to by Berget is even greater when considering that Arctic Offshore Farming has also reported to the Directorate of Fisheries that in October 2024, before the escape incident, a count was carried out in which approximately 56,000 fish were missing compared to what had been reported.
In its release on the fish missing, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries said that, taken together, this gives a picture of a significant gap between the number of fish reported and those harvested. However, Fdir added that Arctic Offshore Farming maintains that no salmon escaped as a result of net damage.
"Sources of error in the counts can have major consequences when dealing with several hundred thousand individuals in a single cage, and low accuracy regarding the number of fish in the cages is a challenge in the aquaculture industry, especially in facilities with large fish stocks," the head of the aquaculture supervision and guidance section at the Directorate of Fisheries acknowledged.
Arctic Offshore Farming was originally Norway Royal Salmon's offshore project. After suffering delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, it secured eight concessions from Norwegian authorities for offshore aquaculture development and launched the first of its sea cages in 2021.
A year later, SalMar acquired AOF as part of its merger with Norway Royal Salmon in 2022, but it was not until September 20223 that it announced its intention to merge it with its offshore aquaculture joint venture with Aker, SalMar Aker Ocean. A partnership that, as of today, has been liquidated after SalMar recently bought out Aker's 15% stake to become the sole owner.
