Alf-Helge Aarskog has died

The death of Aarskog, who was at the helm of Marine Harvest / Mowi for almost a decade, reportedly occurred after a short illness, according to Intrafish.

Current Mowi chief executive Ivan Vindheim told Intrafish that it was with great sadness that the company received the news of Alf-Helge's passing this weekend.

"With that, we have lost a dear former boss, colleague and not least a good friend. This is just sad, and was just so much too early. We pay our respects to his memory," Vindheim told the website.

Aarskog had a long career in the aquaculture industry, and in later years was involved in a number of board roles. He was interested in the development of the industry, and even after stepping down as Mowi CEO in November 2019, he continued to contribute professionally and strategically to companies working on new operating methods and technology.

'Happy with my time at Mowi'

During the AquaNext conference in Stavanger last year, Aarskog and Brit Hjeltnes gave a joint presentation on fish health, drawing many interested people into the conference hall.

After the post, Alf-Helge sat down with Fish Farming Expert's Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, and said, among other things, that he had great faith in keeping farmed fish in closed cages.

"There is no reason why you can't produce more salmon, but you have to reduce the total lice pressure," was his clear opinion.

He also shared some thoughts about his time in Mowi.

"I am happy with my time at Mowi. In hindsight it is always easy to see things that should have been done differently, but what is done is done and hindsight doesn't get you far. Now Mowi must do what suits them," he said.

Changing the name

It was during Aarskog's tenure that the company's name was changed from Marine Harvest to Mowi - the name of the company's strain of broodstock -in a move that the CEO announced and explained to investors at a capital markets day the the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh in November 2018.

“Maybe we are not making history today but we are not far from it,” claimed the chief executive, who added that the initiative would allow the company to start connecting with the consumer in a way that salmon farmers hadn’t done before by launching its own up-market brand of MOWI products.

'Deeply grateful'

In a personal post on LinkedIn, Norwegian salmon farmer Sondre Eide writes that he is deeply grateful for what he learned from Alf Helge.

"You brought an entire industry into the modern era, and did it with a style that was as much human as technological," he writes in the post.