SALMONMEGA - FA
Rigger warning
SALMON farmers are keen to open up offshore waters for huge new fish farms built like oil rigs. So keen that one Norwegian company has been “collaborating” with regulators for the past year and a half – with some success, according to emails seen thanks to freedom of information requests.
Offshore salmon farms are bigger, deeper and more exposed than those Britain is used to. But Norway, home to the first handful of examples, offers a primer. In November, a huge net tore at an offshore site north of Norway during a storm. The farm was so far from shore inspectors couldn’t get to it until this spring and, when they did, they found 42,000 salmon were missing. The company says it made a rounding error, and no fish actually escaped.