Thousands of Salmon has escaped from a SinkaBerg-Hansen AS owned fish farm in Vikna and Nærøy municipality in Nord Trøndelag. The holding pen contained roughly 130 000 farmed salmon. It is unclear how many has escaped. But estimates in media reports vary between 13000 and 130 000.

In an attempt to stop as many escaped farm salmon to reach the nearby rivers, including the famous Namsen salmon river, the governor of Nord Trøndelag has opened up Vikna and Nærøy municipality for free fishing, including the use of nets. “Everybody should go out and fish”  is the advice from the governors office.

The leader of the Namsenvassdragets Grunneirforening  (property association of Namsen river), Tom Riise-Hansen says that all farmed salmon should be sterilized.

– I get so frustrated, disappointed and furious! We have been trough this situation before at the hands of the fish farming industry during the last 20-.30 years, and no matter what is done to strengthen the farm sites, they can’t prevent fish from escaping, Riise says to Trønder Avisa.

– There is only one thing that can help the wild salmon against farmed salmon in the future, and that is sterilization. That is something top level politicians must realise at once. This is bordering on a political scandal he ads.

The SinkaBerg-Hansen AS fish farm is owned by Lisbeth Bergh-Hansen, who is a likely candidate to replace the Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Helga Pedersen (Labour party), should the current minister be relocated in the cabinet after the recent election victory by the Stoltenberg government.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=64.857691,11.167603&spn=0.261394,1.330719&z=10