Published 20.02.2025

Mowi once again celebrates massive profits and a billion-kroner dividend, but behind the facade lies a brutal truth: Norwegian nature and wild salmon are paying the price. NMF has now reported the company twice in one week for serious environmental crimes following extensive escapes of farmed salmon – a threat to the survival of wild salmon.

Massive escape from Mowi

Mowi, the world's largest aquaculture company, has recently reported record profits from 2024 and is distributing over one billion kroner in dividends to its shareholders in the fourth quarter. While the company earns enormous sums, it comes at the expense of Norwegian nature and wild salmon. We at the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association find this unacceptable and have recently reported Mowi for serious environmental crimes following a massive escape of farmed salmon in Dyrøy municipality, as well as the escape of 63,000 smolt in Meløy municipality.

Criminal complaint 1: 27 000 escaped salmon - In February 2025, at least 27,000 salmon escaped from one of Mowi's facilities at Storvika V in Dyrøy municipality after a mooring line broke, causing a fish pen to become partially submerged. The escape poses a serious threat to the Norwegian wild salmon population, which is already under significant pressure.

This is not the first time NMF has reported this facility. As early as 2016, we documented severe pollution from Mowi's facility in Dyrøy, where large amounts of waste lay in "filth piles" on the seabed. Yet, the company is allowed to continue its destructive operations without real consequences.

Criminal complaint 2: During the pumping of smolt at Mowi's dock facility in Glomfjord, Meløy Municipality, safety procedures failed, resulting in 65,000 farmed smolt escaping into the sea. After two weeks of recapture efforts, only 1,770 smolt were retrieved – the remaining 63,000 are still at large, posing a risk of interbreeding with the already endangered wild salmon.

Farmed salmon and wild salmon have different genetic traits, and when they mix, the genetic traits of wild salmon, which have developed over thousands of years, are weakened. In the worst case, this can contribute to the extinction of local wild salmon stocks. After years of the aquaculture industry, escapes, and the decline in the wild salmon population, this has proven to be the truth. Farmed salmon is pointed to as the definite main cause of the collapse of the wild salmon population.

NMF believes that the number of escaped salmon reported by aquaculture companies is often underreported. The farmers never have a complete overview of how many fish are actually in the pens, and they have strong financial incentives to report lower numbers.

Mowi prioritizes profits over nature

At the same time as Mowi earns billions, they refuse to take responsibility for the extensive environmental damage they cause to Norwegian nature. The company continues to use open pens, despite the fact that this contributes to:

• Massiv escapes of farmed cod damages the wil populations genetic diversity
• Spredning av sykdommer og lakselus, som påfører villaksen stor lidelse og dødelighet.
• Forurensning av fjordene, med enorme mengder avføring og fôrspill som skaper døde havbunner og ubalanse i økosystemene.

We demand action!

NMF believes that today's aquaculture industry must undergo a radical reformation. We demand:

• Transition to floating closed facilities in the sea to prevent escapes, salmon lice, and pollution of the fjords.
• Stricter regulations and monitoring of aquaculture facilities so that companies that violate environmental laws are punished and held accountable
• Large fines per escaped salmon and visible marking of all farmed fish for better control.
• Closure of facilities that repeatedly violate environmental legislation.

The current practices in the aquaculture industry are not sustainable. The reality is that farming a predatory fish like salmon will never be truly sustainable – but the negative environmental impact can be reduced by transitioning to floating closed facilities in the sea.

It is unacceptable that large companies like Mowi profit from an industry that harms Norwegian nature. Wild salmon is part of Norway’s natural heritage, and we cannot allow it to be sacrificed for short-term profit for the few at the expense of the common good.