In the deeps of the fjords of Lyngen, Norway, a fjord well known among fishing enthusiasts from all over Europe for it’s huge cod and halibut, a different kind of monster lurk beneath the blue waves. More and more fishermen are reporting that they are catching codthat can’t be described otherwise than that they are freaks.

The monsters are recognized by their deformed mouths, bent neck and sometimes abnormal growth on the head. Tests by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research shows that the monster cod may be a result of intensive fish farming methods.And when the first pictures of the deformed fish arrived at the institute in November 2009, they where at first withheld from the public.

Meanwhile, commercial fisherman Odin Russenes, a man with 40 years of experience fishing  in the Lyngenfjord and Storfjord says in an interview with Norwegian TV channel, NRK,  that every third cod cought in the fjord is deformed, and other local fishermen is claiming that they have cought as much as 5000 deformed fish.

Odin Russenes also ads that they started catching deformed cod at the same time as the cod fish farms was established in the fjord 10-15 years ago, while adding that the wild fish now shuns the fjords where the fish farms are established.

The local fish farmers however are denying accusations that the monster cod has run away from their facilities in the fjord.
- When I say that it is not our fish that have ran away, it is because we have the best fish in the market. We do not have deformed fish, the CEO of Lofitorsk, Dag Hansen says to Nettavisen

But now the freak fish is spreading. Angler Per Pedersen (72) says to NRK that he has been fishing since WWII hand have never seen anything like what he cought the other day. Last Wednesday he was fishing in Straumfjord in Nordreisa, when i pulled a cod reminding him of the monsters of Kåfjord and Lyngenfjord.

Meanwhile the fish farms continue to wreck the fjords of Norway. At the moment the problem of salmon lice is high on the agenda of the Norwegian authorities…well as long as the pressure for them to do so is on from the media. The thing is that the minister responsible, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen is herself a big owner in fish farming. But while we wait for the ignorant, the corrupt and the arrogant fools that run the show in this country to take action…leave the farmed fish at the supermarket!

Se other articles about the ruining of the fjords:

They Poison our Fjords

The Fjords are Broken

Photos by Fiskeridirektoratet