The crew of a fishing boat working off the village of Laukvik, Norway noticed something abnormal about one of the cod pulled up in their nets over Easter.

The head of the three-kilo fish was small and deformed, there was something strange about the neck and the liver was snow-white, skipper Benn Ole Stensvold told IntraFish sister publication Fiskeribladet.

The cod was picked up on the quay by the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, which took samples of the cod and sent them to the country's Marine Research Institute (HI) for further analysis.

Results

The Directorate of Fisheries has now released its findings: The cod was raised on a farm.

In recent months, Norway's burgeoning cod farming industry has come under fire following multiple reports of escaped fish and speculation over their potential impact on wild populations.

As of Wednesday, the directorate had only identified that it is a farmed fish, but not which farm the cod may have come from.

In February, DNA testing by Norway's Institute of Marine Research following a suspected farmed cod escape in Meloy, Norway, concluded there is a "very high probability" the fish originated from the nearby farm sites operated by Norcod.

There is still no conclusion as to how the cod could have escaped from the site, however, and Norcod has so far not discovered any damage to the nets that could have given the fish opportunity to escape.

Similarly, there have been no records of incidents related to operations that could have caused the fish escape, said the company.

In December, an estimated 87,000 cod escaped from a Gadus Group site in northern Norway after holes were discovered in several cages.

Some researchers and fishermen have raised alarm that the escaped fish could breed with wild stocks.

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