In total, salmon escaped at least 27 times in 2024. The largest individual incident occurred at a facility in Nordland county – a mass escape involving 65,000 salmon.
According to the Directorate of Fisheries, the fish escape mainly during handling, and pose problems not only for individual fish farms. Escaped farmed salmon are considered a threat to the endangered wild salmon population, and the industry is working towards a zero vision.
This year's figures are still preliminary, but pale in comparison to the peak year of 2019 when over 286,000 salmon escaped from their farms, according to the Norwegian business newspaper E24.
