150K Farmed Trout Killed In Norwegian Storm, Another 150K Escape - AFP

[hatrack]

Around 150,000 trout were killed at a fish farm off Norway's west coast during a fierce storm this weekend and another 150,000 escaped from the nets, the production manager of the farm said on Tuesday.

"Half of the farm's rainbow trout aged six months and weighing 300 grams sank with the cages," Nils Arve Eidsheim of the Loennoeykalven fish farm in Austevoll in southwestern Norway told AFP.

The trout were crushed to death on the seabed when the cages broke loose during the storm overnight Saturday to Sunday, he said. "We had to fight all night to save our installations but the waves had the final say," Eidsheim said.

Another 150,000 trout escaped from the same fish farm, which is owned by Sjoetroll Havbruk. "With the help of fishermen equipped with nets, we started to pick up (some of) the escaped fish. Several hundred a day since Sunday," Eidsheim said.

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