Icelandic authorities probing 5,000 strong hatchery escape

Iceland is starting to experience large scale salmon escapes, with a reported serious incident in the northeast of the country.

The Icelandic Veterinary Agency MAST said that just over 5,100 salmon fry got out of a Samherji hatchery on land, at Öxarfjörður.

The incident took place in May but the full extent of the incident has only been made public in the past few days. The number of fish that escaped is also far higher than originally thought.

MAST said the incident happened when the water level rose in the fry tank with the result that fish were sucked out through the overflow opening and into the drainage box.

The fry were approximately 70-80 grams and unsmolted. It could not be ruled out that the fry subsequently smolted in a pond and got out into the sea, MAST said. According to information from the operator, 868 fry were found outside the tank, but it was unclear at that point how many fry there were in total.

MAST said it is investigating the case and has requested information from the company, including information on the actions taken to recover the fry and exactly how many there were.

“During the investigation of the case, it was found that the operator was unable to account for 5,196 fish, and the Food Agency concludes that this is the number of fry that may have [developed into] smolt into a pond and washed out into the sea,” MAST said.

It has also stated that the fish farm was not equipped with enough fine-woven nets to catch the fry that escaped from the station at the time.