In 2023, 72.0 million fish were lost in sea cages and
157.6 million juveniles were lost in smolt facilities.
Of the 452 million smolt put to sea, 15.9% were lost
before ever reaching slaughter.
Source: Fiskeridirektoratet — Official Statistics, updated 28.05.2025
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
72.0M
15.9% loss rate
Smolt Phase Losses
157.6M
26.9% loss rate
Sea Loss Rate
15.9%
of smolt put to sea
Smolt Loss Rate
26.9%
of juveniles produced
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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 2023, the industry lost 72.0 million fish — over three times the 22.6 million that would be lost at the 5% target. That's 49.4 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 2023
Excess Losses
0.0M fish
lost above the 5% target
Gap to Target
0.0pp
percentage points above 5%
01 — 2023 At A Glance
The numbers behind Norwegian salmon
Smolt Put To Sea
452.0M
juvenile fish released
≈ flat vs 2022
Sea Phase Losses
72.0M
lost in sea cages
↑ +11.3% vs 2022
Sea Loss Rate
15.9%
of fish put to sea
↑ +1.6pp vs 2022
Smolt Phase Losses
157.6M
juveniles lost on land
↑ +0.8% vs 2022
Production Sold
3.27M t
tonnes round weight
↓ -0.9% vs 2022
Cleaner Fish Used
30.2M
wrasse & lumpfish
↓ -9.6% vs 2022
Industry Revenue
113.4B NOK
total sales value
↑ +5.3% vs 2022
Farm Escapes
16,700
fish escaped to sea
↓ -72% vs 2022
02 — Is It Getting Better?
Sea loss rate has barely improved in 30 years
Despite industry promises of better welfare, the share of fish lost
at sea has fluctuated between 13–22% since the mid-1990s. In 2023, 15.9%
of all fish put to sea were lost.
Sea Phase Loss Rate
Losses as % of smolt put to sea — 1994–2023
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 72 million in 2023.
Fish Put to Sea vs. Fish Lost at Sea
Millions of fish — 1994–2023
04 — The Hidden Cost
170 million juveniles are lost before reaching the sea
The smolt and juvenile phase is hidden from public eyes. Yet in 2023, 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 — 2005–2023 (stacked)
05 — What the Veterinary Institute Says
Disease, injuries, and unknown causes dominate mortality
The Veterinary Institute's 2023 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 2023
Veterinærinstituttet · Report 1a – 2024
The national annual loss rate for sea-phase salmon reached 16.7%
in 2023, the highest level recorded in five years. Cause-of-death data from the
AquaCloud industry database (~47% of active sea localities)
shows registered dead fish by category:
Key events in 2023 included a significant drop in pasteurellose
cases, continued high levels of CMS (cardiomyopathy syndrome),
and devastating jellyfish attacks in November–December that caused major
losses in central and northern regions.
The southern production areas PO2, PO3 and PO4 had the highest loss rates,
with median production cycle loss rate exceeding 20%.
ISA stable at 21. Lice violations hit a record low.
Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) held steady at 21 cases in 2023.
Pancreas Disease (PD) fell sharply to 57 — down from 96 in 2022 and the
2020 peak of 159. Lice limit violations dropped to 556 — the lowest recorded since 2012.
Nearly 3x difference in loss rate between Norway's best and worst regions
Nordland produced the most salmon (364,000 tonnes) with a loss rate of 13.4%.
Møre og Romsdal had the highest loss rate at 30.5% — nearly three times worse than
Trøndelag's 11.2%. Vestland had the most absolute losses at 20.0M fish.
Loss Rate vs. Production by Region
2023 — 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: Trøndelag
11.2%
loss rate · 240kt produced · 159 active localities
Worst: Møre og Romsdal
30.5%
loss rate · 220kt produced · 81 active localities
Most Losses: Vestland
20.0M
fish lost · 341kt produced · 270 active localities
Most Localities: Vestland
270
active farm sites · more than any other region in 2023
08 — Cleaner Fish
Millions of fish used as living lice-removers
The industry deploys wrasse and lumpfish into salmon cages to eat sea lice.
Usage peaked at 61 million in 2019 but has since declined to 30 million in 2023,
partly due to high cleaner fish loss rates and a shift toward mechanical delousing.
Cleaner Fish Deployed Per Year
Millions of individuals — 1998–2023
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.