Large quantities of cod escaped from Gadus Group’s breeding facility in Volda in September. This is one of the biggest escapes in a long time. The Directorate of Fisheries opened an inspection case and now the company is being ordered to correct a number of deficiencies. – The incident is very serious, but there are no unusual deviations we have given, says Leni Marie Lisæter, who is acting section head for aquaculture in the Directorate of Fisheries. They point out how important it is to have a good risk assessment for cod escape, since the history of previous farms shows how eager the cod is to get out of the net. Leni Mari Lisæter in the Directorate of Fisheries says the cod depletion in the Volda was serious. Photo: Privat The Directorate of Fisheries believes this to be the shortcoming: the company has not carried out continuous monitoring fishing at the site prior to the release, as required. The company does not have a sufficiently updated contingency plan The risk assessment for escapes is not good enough The contingency plan does not contain information on how the recapture of escaped cod can be made more efficient The company cannot document that the employees have sufficiently completed training to avoid, detect and limit escapes Meiner the nuts were not constructed correctly Gadus Group has until Monday to send its comments on the deviation to the Directorate of Fisheries. Falk Øveraas, who is community and authority contact at Gadus Group, says that they will not comment on the case until they have submitted their comments. Previously, the company stated that the reason for the cod escape was that the nuts were not constructed correctly. Holes were found in three completely new nuts. These were replaced. Sveinung Dale caught over 30 farmed cod in the net this winter. Photo: private Getting farmed cod in the net Many months after the escape, the fishermen in Volda still get farmed cod in their nets. This winter hobby fisherman Sveinung Dale set a record with 32 farmed cod in his net. – This is not how it should be. Farmed cod must be inside the cages and not loose in the sea, says Dale. Dale has no idea how long he will have farmed cod in his net. He believes that the authorities must put down more breeding facilities to avoid more escapes. – They just have to end this. I don’t want farmed fish in the lake, says Dale. Map the cod The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research is in the process of mapping the genes of the cod in an area of 20 kilometers around where the escape occurred. The researchers get help from local fishermen who measure how long the cod is, check whether it is sexually mature and whether it looks like farmed fish. The cod head will be sent to the Institute of Marine Research for analysis, says Terje van der Meeren. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news – There are a lot of cod that have escaped, and when they grow to sexual maturity it is important to find out if they interbreed with the wild cod. Therefore, we must have an overview of the genetic conditions of the wild cod in these fjords, says Terje van der Meeren, senior researcher at the Institute of Marine Research. He says that it is not desirable for the farmed fish to reproduce with the wild cod, because they do not know what the consequences might be. For the salmon, the result of such mixtures was that the offspring had poorer survival. The Institute of Marine Research is also in the process of mapping cod spawning in and around Meløy municipality after escaped farmed cod were observed there.
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The Directorate of Fisheries issues an order to correct deviations after escaped farmed cod in the Volda – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio
