75,000 salmon escape from Mowi Scotland farm during Storm Amy
Around 75,000 farmed salmon with an average weight of 860 grams escaped through a tear in a pen net at Mowi Scotland’s Gorsten farm during Storm Amy at the weekend, the company said today.
“Initial investigations indicate that the intense weather conditions caused mooring anchors to drag, and this brought the pen net into contact with a flotation pipe, subsequently causing a tear,” Mowi said in a statement.
“Despite challenging conditions, Mowi swiftly informed the relevant authorities, including local fisheries stakeholders, and is now undertaking a full investigation.”
First in over three years
It is the first very large escape from a Scottish farm since June 2022, when Mowi lost between 15,000 and 20,000 fish from its Colonsay site and 32,463 from its Grey Horse Channel Outer farm in two separate incidents.
In February 2021, Mowi - which is both Scotland’s and the world’s biggest Atlantic salmon farmer – lost 19,686 fish from its farm at Hellisay, Barra. Both Colonsay and Hellisay are high energy sites, which are more exposed than traditional sites and have stronger water flows.
The fish lost at Gorsten were not the only Mowi fish to escape as a result of Storm Amy. In Norway, Mowi reported escapes at its Kåholmen and Valøyan sites on the Trøndelag coast, where the storm reached hurricane force in several places.
It is not yet known how many fish escaped, but at Kåholmen about 200 farmed fish weighing around 3.5 kilograms were caught on Monday.
