Scenario analysis of fish escapes in Norwegian aquaculture for implementation of barrier management and improved learning from accidents

Learning from accidents is decisive for establishing barriers to prevent future accidents and ensuring safety in socio-technical systems. Farmed fish escape is a major concern in the aquaculture industry and there is limited understanding of the accident scenarios involving fish escape. Hence, the systematic analysis of information and data about these types of near accidents and accidents may reveal contributing causes. The objective of this article is to present data and scenarios based on the investigation of 745 fish escape accidents and near accidents reported to the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries from January 2006 to August 2019. The aim is to derive the direct and underlying causes and develop generic scenarios for fish escape, which can be used for improved reporting of near accidents and accidents. The paper discusses the limitations of current reporting systems, suggests a new categorization scheme for the Directorate of Fisheries to enhance the industry and authorities’ learning from fish escape events, and incorporates new types of fish farms emerging in the industry. Further, the study results can support barrier management and emergency planning, since they help understand the causes of fish escapes. This may be used for analyzing whether existing accident prevention strategies and barriers are sufficient or if additional barriers need to be implemented by fish farm operators.