What we do today we do better than yesterday
CSRD Reference
ES1 - Fish Welfare
SalMar is committed to producing salmon on the salmon’s terms. That involves ensuring optimal health and welfare throughout the salmon’s entire lifecycle. This policy outlines SalMar’s approach to safeguarding fish welfare through preventive measures, responsible operations, and continuous improvement.
This policy applies to all SalMar’s farming operations, from hatcheries to harvest, and includes all employees and contracted partners involved in fish health and welfare management.
The Board of Directors holds ultimate responsibility for fish health and welfare. The Executive Management ensures integration of welfare standards into operational practices. Dedicated fish health professionals oversee implementation at site level and report regularly to management.
Fish health teams monitor welfare indicators and implement preventive measures. All employees in these segments are trained in best practices for handling, biosecurity, and welfare protocols. Veterinarians provide guidance on disease prevention and treatment when necessary.
Fish health and welfare are monitored continuously through site-level checks, external inspections, and systematic reporting in SalMar’s quality system. All mortality events and welfare deviations are investigated and documented. SalMar complies with all regulatory reporting requirements, including mandatory notifications to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA).
For marine sites, SalMar reports weekly to the authorities information related treatments against salmon lice and active substances used, results of sensitivity tests, any suspicion of resistance, and the number of lice per fish.
For freshwater facilities, SalMar reports to the authorities whenever weekly mortality exceeds established threshold values, which vary by fish size. Welfare deviations, such as incidents that negatively affect fish welfare, are also reported. Compliance with these requirements is verified through inspections, where authorities ensure that all mandatory cases have been properly reported.
SalMar’s strategy focuses on preventive health measures, including vaccination programs, biosecurity zoning, and optimized site selection. The company prioritizes reducing stress and fear during handling, minimizing interventions, and ensuring humane slaughter practices.
The following sections outline the Group’s most material impacts, risks and opportunities, along with strategic targets established.
Mortalities | Handling | Delousing
Negative impacts may arise from disease outbreaks and associated mortalities, resulting in loss of biological assets and potential reputational effects. Handling can be stressful for the salmon and is required at several stages of the production cycle, including delousing. Delousing itself can also be stressful but is conducted in accordance with national regulations and company procedures to minimise harm and safeguard fish welfare.
Trained personnel | Fish health monitoring | Zero cleaner fish
Positive impacts include SalMar’s highly trained personnel, who are essential for maintaining strong fish health standards and ensuring that handling and operations are carried out responsibly. Continuous fish health monitoring provides critical insight into the condition and needs of each salmon. SalMar’s commitment to zero use of cleaner fish is widely recognised as a positive contribution to fish welfare.
Reputational damage | Reduced production | Diseases and Illness | Regulatory uncertainty
Reputational damage, reduced production, disease outbreaks and regulatory uncertainty represent key fish health related risks for SalMar. Failure to maintain high fish welfare standards may undermine public trust and weaken the industry’s social licence to operate. Mortalities lead to loss of biological assets and directly reduce production volumes and revenue. Diseases and illness are major contributors to these losses, and outbreaks pose a significant threat despite the Group’s strong focus on biosecurity and preventive health measures. In addition, regulatory uncertainty remains a risk. The Norwegian government is developing a growth framework based on actual environmental impacts. How such a system will affect companies in practice is not yet clear, creating uncertainty.
New fish welfare breakthroughs in research | Increased survival rate
The development of the Salmon Living Lab represents a major opportunity for SalMar, as new research and welfare breakthroughs have the potential to significantly strengthen biological performance across the value chain. Improved survival rates directly increase production and revenue while also enhancing the industry’s social licence by demonstrating strong fishwelfare outcomes.
Increased market access through certifications
Certifications offer external validation of operational standards, including welfare practices. SalMar’s ambition to increase the share of certified sites can drive continuous improvements in procedures, operations and welfare performance, while also supporting access to markets where such assurances are increasingly required.
New production methods | New technology
Sea lice remain the most pressing biological challenge in salmon farming, and the development of new production methods, such as systems that physically limit lice exposure, provides important opportunities for both welfare and industry growth. Advancements in delousing technology also play a critical role, innovations like laserbased lice removal already contribute to improved welfare by reducing stress and the need for handling.
SalMar aims to maintain high welfare standards across all operations, ensure 100% vaccination of smolt before sea transfer, and minimize handling and delousing interventions. The company commits to zero vision for escape incidents and continuous improvement through training and innovation. The Group’s survival rate target is 97% by 2030.
SalMar works to facilitate optimal environmental conditions for salmon by selecting sites with favorable biological characteristics and implementing robust biosecurity and welfare measures. The company ensures stable water quality in hatcheries, provides proper oxygenation and temperature control, and applies tailored feeding programs for each life stage. Robust smolt from strong genes and good care in the smolt facilities is important for optimal life quality of the salmon after being placed into the sea cages.
Preventive measures such as vaccination and lice control technologies are prioritized to maintain fish health and welfare. Biosecurity zoning prevents disease spread, and handling protocols minimize stress and fear. Delousing is performed only when necessary and under strict risk assessments. Humane slaughter is carried out by trained personnel using percussive or electric stunning. Continuous improvement is achieved through employee training, R&D, and participation in industry initiatives.