Salmar's offshore farm

Havmerden, or Ocean Farm 1, is an installation located in Frohavet in Froya municipality in Trondelag, Norway.

  • The cage is designed to be able to produce salmon in more exposed places than traditional cages.
  • It cost around NOK 700 million (€67 million/$80 million), and can hold around 1.6 million salmon in different chambers.
  • It has a height of 69 meters and a diameter of 110 meters.
  • The project was the first to receive so-called development permits, and received eight permits in February 2016. Earlier this year, they were converted to regular permits, as the first and so far only conversion.

Norwegian salmon farmer SalMar on Sunday discovered yet another crack in its offshore sea cage Ocean Farm 1, only a few weeks after a similar incident led to an escape from the site.

The Directorate of Fisheries is planning to inspect the facility by the end of the week, however, "it is unlikely the latest damage has caused any extensive escape."

The recent damage to the netting structure was discovered during a daily routine inspection and has already been repaired.

The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries reported a salmon escape from SalMar's offshore salmon farming subsidiary Ocean Farming on Aug. 28.

The incident took place at the Habranden site where the company is in the process of ending the current production cycle.

On Sept. 1, the Directorate of Fisheries did not rule out a "major escape" from the sea cage. At the time, about 40 salmon were recaptured weighing over 5 kilograms each.

Salmar's offshore sea cage was the first of its kind to receive development permits for salmon farming in Norway, and it sold itself partially on the concept it would minimize escapes. However, it has suffered three such incidents as of the end of August.

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