In 2022, 64.7 million fish were lost in sea cages and
156.3 million juveniles were lost in smolt facilities.
Of the 452.2 million smolt put to sea, 14.3% were lost
before ever reaching slaughter.
Norwegian law defines a loss as any fish removed from stock that never reaches slaughter — deaths, culled fish, and escapes combined. Mortality figures reported separately can shrink over time as individual incidents get reclassified. The loss rate is harder to manipulate and gives the most complete picture of fish that failed to reach harvest, making it the better metric for tracking welfare year over year.
Sea Phase Losses
64.7M
14.3% loss rate
Smolt Phase Losses
156.3M
25.7% loss rate
Sea Loss Rate
14.3%
of smolt put to sea
Smolt Loss Rate
25.7%
of juveniles produced
Scroll to explore
Norwegian Government Target
Goal: reduce sea losses to 5%
Norway's government has set a target of reducing salmon sea losses to
5% of all fish put to sea.
In 2022, the industry lost 64.7 million fish — nearly three times the 22.6 million that would be lost at the 5% target. That's 42.1 million excess losses above the government's goal.
The percentage hides the scale — this is hundreds of thousands of fish lost above target every single day.
5% goal · 0.0M fish
0%0.0% · 0.0M fish25%
At 5% Target
0.0M fish
would be lost if industry hit the goal
Actual Losses
0.0M fish
lost at sea in 2022
Excess Losses
0.0M fish
lost above the 5% target
Gap to Target
0.0pp
percentage points above 5%
01 — 2022 At A Glance
The numbers behind Norwegian salmon
Smolt Put To Sea
452.2M
juvenile fish released
↑ +5.2% vs 2021
Sea Phase Losses
64.7M
lost in sea cages
↑ +1.1% vs 2021
Sea Loss Rate
14.3%
of fish put to sea
↓ -0.6pp vs 2021
Smolt Phase Losses
156.3M
juveniles lost on land
↑ +7.9% vs 2021
Production Sold
3.30M t
tonnes round weight
≈ flat vs 2021
Cleaner Fish Used
33.4M
wrasse & lumpfish
↓ -26.8% vs 2021
Industry Revenue
107.7B NOK
total sales value
↑ +34.6% vs 2021
Farm Escapes
59,600
fish escaped to sea
↓ -13.5% vs 2021
02 — Is It Getting Better?
Sea loss rate has barely improved in 30 years
In 2022, 14.3% of all fish put to sea were lost — below the multi-year average but still far from the government's 5% target.
Sea Phase Loss Rate
Losses as % of smolt put to sea — 1994–2022
03 — Scale of Loss
More production, more loss
As the industry has scaled from under 100 million to nearly 500 million fish
put to sea, the absolute number of losses has grown in lockstep. From 10 million
fish lost in 1994 to 64.7 million in 2022.
Fish Put to Sea vs. Fish Lost at Sea
Millions of fish — 1994–2022
04 — The Hidden Cost
156 million juveniles are lost before reaching the sea
The smolt and juvenile phase is hidden from public eyes. Yet in 2022, losses
in land-based facilities were more than double the losses at sea.
These fish are lost in hatcheries and smolt facilities from disease, handling,
and production failures.
Sea Phase vs. Smolt Phase Losses
Millions of fish lost — 2005–2022 (stacked)
05 — What the Veterinary Institute Says
Disease, injuries, and unknown causes dominate mortality
The Veterinary Institute's 2022 fish health report shows that losses are not just a matter of scale,
but of cause. Infectious disease, injuries and trauma, and losses of unknown cause together account for
most recorded loss events in Norwegian aquaculture.
Key findings from Fiskehelserapporten 2022
Veterinærinstituttet · Report 1a – 2023
The national sea-phase loss rate held at around 14–15%
in 2022. Cause-of-death data from the AquaCloud industry database
(~47% of active sea localities) shows registered dead fish by category:
Key events in 2022 included continued high levels of cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS),
winter sores (Moritella viscosa) in northern production areas,
and a fall in ISA cases to 17 after the 2021 spike.
Pancreas Disease remained elevated at 96 cases, while lice violations continued their multi-year decline to 798 — the lowest level since 2013.
ISA fell back to 17 cases in 2022 after the 2021 spike of 29. Pancreas Disease (PD) remained elevated at 96.
Lice violations fell to 798 — the lowest recorded since 2013, continuing a sustained multi-year improvement.
Nearly 2x difference in loss rate between Norway's best and worst regions
Nordland led production (366,000 tonnes) with the lowest loss rate at 10.2%. Rogaland had the worst at 19.3% —
nearly twice as high. Vestland had the most absolute losses at 18.3M fish.
Note: In 2022, Troms and Finnmark were administratively combined as one county.
Loss Rate vs. Production by Region
2022 — loss rate % (bar) with production volume overlay (line) · Source: Fiskeridirektoratet
Who Produces vs. Who Kills
Each region's share of national production vs. share of losses
Efficiency: Losses per 1,000t Produced
Fish lost (×1000) for every 1,000 tonnes of salmon sold
Farm Clustering vs. Loss Rate — Does Proximity Matter?iHow this is calculatedFarm GPS coordinates are taken from a mid-year snapshot (week 26) of the Barentswatch API. Farms are grouped into regions by latitude band. For each farm, the straight-line (Haversine) distance to every other farm in the same region is measured, and the shortest distance — its nearest neighbour — is kept. These per-farm nearest-neighbour distances are then averaged across all farms in the region. A lower value means farms are genuinely clustered close together.
Avg. distance to nearest neighbouring farm (km) vs. sea loss rate · bubble = production volume · Source: Barentswatch API
Best: Nordland
10.2%
loss rate · 366kt produced · 212 active localities
Worst: Rogaland
19.3%
loss rate · 105kt produced · 60 active localities
Most Losses: Vestland
18.3M
fish lost · 374kt produced · 271 active localities
Most Localities: Vestland
271
active farm sites · more than any other region in 2022
08 — Cleaner Fish
Millions of fish used as living lice-removers
Usage peaked at 61 million in 2019 and has declined significantly to 33.4 million in 2022,
as the industry shifted away from biological lice treatment toward mechanical delousing methods.
Cleaner Fish Deployed Per Year
Millions of individuals — 1998–2022
Explore Further
See every farm. Updated weekly.
Explore the live map of all salmon farming localities along the Norwegian coast
with weekly lice counts, disease status, and treatment data from Barentswatch.