Marine Harvest loses 56,000 fish in Norway escape
The Norwegian division of Marine Harvest has reported an escape of 56,000 salmon from a farm at Geiteryggen in Nærøy municipality in Trondelag.
Monday's escape occurred when a cage net was damaged during an operation at the site. There were 180,000 fish with an average weight of 2kg in the cage.
In a statement, Marine Harvest said the net was immediately repaired by divers and the incident reported to the Directorate of Fisheries. Local fishermen are helping in the recapture exercise.
"The pen is now emptied using a wellboat, and counting of the remaining fish shows that about 56,000 fish have escaped," the company said.
Marine Harvest will pay fishermen NOK 300 (£27.50) for each captured fish originating from the farm.
