Up to 10,000 salmon may have escaped after a fire broke our at a Cermaq fish farm in Norway.
The fire – at the Ryggefjorden site, Finnmark, Northern Norway – damaged the net cages.
Between 1,000 and 10,000 fish may have escaped, Cermaq said in a press release.
The escaped fish weigh about 500 grams, untreated and fresh. There were about 162,000 fish in the cages when the fire broke out. The Directorate of Fisheries has been notified, the company added.
The fire was quickly detected by the employees at the facility. No one has reportedly been injured.
Cermaq is now working to secure the rest of the fish and the plant. The fire has been put out, and the fish in the cage will be moved to new and undamaged cage. At the same time, the remaining fish will be counted so that the total extent of the escape can be mapped.