Three people have so far been arrested and charged following the large action on Tuesday. The police have also brought charges against four companies as part of the investigation. They also do not rule out that more people may be charged in the case, or that the charges are extended. – We do not yet know the extent of the case. The investigation will show that. But the action is probably one of the largest of its kind that we have done in the Troms police district, says unit leader in the Troms police district, Ståle Luther. According to the police, there will probably be a prison meeting on Thursday. Coastguard central Both the police, coastguard, Økocrim, the Directorate of Fisheries and the Norwegian Tax Agency contributed in advance of or during the action itself. Luther tells news that it was necessary to involve the Coast Guard, so that they would not be discovered before they took action. – We need them in cases like this when we need to get into an object unnoticed, he says. – It can be in places with a ferry connection, or other places where we know there is a risk of us being discovered before we arrive. Unit leader in the Troms police district, Ståle Luther, says the actions were one of the largest of their kind. Photo: Gunnar Grindstein / news – The operation of Fjord salmon not part of the action The police will not go into detail for the time being about which actors have been arrested or what the content of the charges are, beyond the fact that they relate to violations of both fisheries and accounting legislation. But Christin Pedersen in Fjordlaks AS, which owns Karlsøybruket, confirms that there was an action on Tuesday at their location in Troms. – The accounts of this company are administered and kept in Ålesund and therefore in that connection documents that were located in Ålesund were also seized, writes Pedersen in a statement. She further emphasizes that the operation of Fjordlaks in Ålesund is not part of this campaign. – As owners of Karlsøybruket, we are of course uneasy after such an action. We expect that the police will eventually inform us more about what this applies to, and what is believed to have been done wrong. We will of course contribute with the necessary information, writes Pedersen. Fjordlaks’ premises in Ålesund. Photo: Øyvind Sandnes / news Pedersen states that operations at Karlsøybruket, Tufjordbruket and Fjordlaks are going as normal. Senior adviser in the Directorate of Fisheries, Anne Tove Sivertsen, tells Fiskeribladet that the first suspicion that applied to one of the locations concerned quota evasion and rewriting between species. The rewriting between species must be between cod and pollock. Karlsøybruket in Troms was one of the locations the police campaigned against. Photo: Trygve Grønning / news – Not surprisingly – The industry has become more professional and there is perhaps less crime now than before, but there are probably still examples of things that should have been avoided, says Hage. That’s what the editor of Fiskeribladet, Øystein Hage, says on a general basis, following Tuesday’s big action against the fishing industry. According to Hage, there have long been rumors in the industry that fishermen and fish receptions in Norway collaborate on illegal activities. – It has been suggested in the past that as much as 20 to 30 per cent of the cod quota has been traded illegally. So the public is missing out on many billions of kroner in lost tax revenue, says Hage. The editor believes that violations of fisheries legislation have been quite extensive in parts of the industry over the years. – Some of these companies have experienced tremendous growth in turnover in recent years, without the quotas or prices having increased, says Hage. – We know that there have been a lot of fish that have disappeared in the big accounts, so it is not surprising that this is coming now. The editor of Fiskeribladet, Øystein Hage, believes that the public could lose billions of kroner due to cheating in the fishing industry. Photo: Lena Knutli – It is entirely possible to engage in cheating The editor of Fiskeribladet is aware that it is demanding for the authorities to check whether all actors in the fishing industry follow the rule book. – Many of the fish reception centers are often located in rural areas, and are far from the police. The Directorate of Fisheries has limited resources to go out and check, says Hage – So if you want to cheat and engage in crime, then it is entirely possible. Especially when thousands of tonnes of scree are taken, it is difficult to control everything.
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Fjordlaks confirms that the police campaigned against Karlsøybruket – news Troms and Finnmark
