The global seafood company Mowi is offering a bounty to fishers who catch escaped salmon after an estimated 27,000 fish went missing from a farm off the Norwegian coast in what campaigners said was a “disaster for wild salmon”.
The world’s largest farmed salmon producer is offering a reward of 500 kroner (£36) per salmon caught after it said a quarter of its 105,000 salmon population escaped from a cage in Troms, north-west Norway.
“27,000 farmed salmon on the run is a disaster for wild salmon,” said Pål Mugaas, a spokesperson for Norske Lakseelver (Norwegian Salmon Rivers).
In Norway, which exports 1.2m tonnes of farmed salmon a year, the problem is such that last summer wild salmon numbers dropped to a historic low, resulting in the closure of 33 rivers to salmon fishing.
Seafood firm offers bounty to catch 27,000 escaped salmon off Norway Mowi to give fishers £36 per fish after loss from farm in what campaigners say is a ‘disaster for wild salmon’.
