After a record year of salmon escapes in 2019, Norway's Directorate of Fisheries is prioritizing a number of measures to prevent fish escapes this year. One measure is investigating whether the industry has established risk management schemes.

"The reason why relief operations go wrong in many cases is that the risk management in the business could have been better," Director of Fisheries Senior Adviser Knut Lervag said.

In order to gain a better sense of why fish escapes occur, the Directorate will map out the information it can get from service workshops to achieve a better overview on where and how holes and tears in nets occur.

A pilot project to investigate will be carried out in 2020 and the effort will continue through 2021.

The Directorate will also prioritize investigating the influence of the use of drug treatments and and the impact of copper on fish health and the environment.

"When it comes to pharmaceuticals, we want to investigate whether the businesses through internal control systems ensure environmentally friendly use," Lervag said.

Copper levels around salmon farms have been steadily increasing in the industry over the past decade.