00:03 - Central Norway. The Island of Hitra on the Atlantic coast. In early April winter still prevails, with freezing temperatures at night. During the day temperatures reach five degrees Celsius. The fjord landscape is peaceful in the midday sun. Seeing such scenes, one immediately thinks of clean water and untouched nature. But the scenery is no longer so idyllic. This is one of the largest fish farms in Norway, with 560,000 salmon. For a long time, the area has been heavily polluted. All sorts of toxins have entered the sea, partly from the ships, partly from the surrounding villages. Here in the ecologically sensitive North, environmental toxins degrade at a slower rate than in the warmer waters of the South.

00:53 - Around Hitra the sea is slightly warmer compared to other fjords. The temperature of the waters is currently four degrees Celsius – in the summer it can rise to 14 degrees. The supply ship docks.

01:06 - The plants here costs 7 hundred thousand Euros alone. Eight other plants with different generations of fish are still within an hour’s drive. In each of the pools, 70,000 salmon swim in the narrowest of spaces.

Interviewee: To pacify it we gave it an anaesthetic, so we can show him. It’s an Atlantic salmon, it’s about 2kg now. We’ve had it since May of last year and feed it once a day. Another four, five months and he’ll be 5kg.

02:11 - In the north the salmon farmers can count themselves lucky. A few hundred kilometres to the south, between Bergen and Lidernis, the salmon have been dying for weeks. The reason: poisonous algae called Chatonella carried over by ships from the Japanese sea. These killer algae first appeared in 1998 and live mainly in heavily polluted marine regions. It requires polluted water in order to grow. This says something about the water status in southern Norway. Marine biologists believe things could get a whole lot worse, as most of the algae has not reached the coast. 680 tons of fish have been killed by the algae and the people of Norway are powerless. They can only watch the fish die as millions of dollars in investment disappears. The current advice is to feed the fish sparsely, or not at all, so that they swim deeper, as the algae clouds are mostly found on the surface. The fish can survive months without food. But the salmon breeders now fear for the salmon’s existence should the algae spread further. Further North in Hitra people are aware of the algae’s existence, but it so far hasn’t affected the waters. But viral diseases are dangerous.

03:40 - The most dangerous epidemic is ISA, infectious salmon anaemia, which dilutes the blood of fish and suffocates them. It was last in the region 5 years ago. One has to kill all the salmon immediately and clean everything and wait until the virus disappears.

03:57 - The water in the fjord is 15 meters deep. Experts have discovered that salmon from certain regions, not necessarily from this farm, have absorbed heavy metals and poisons in greater concentrations. The Norwegian environmental organisation has even warned that both wild and farmed salmon are heavily contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls. These have been used since the 30s in the production of paints, marine varnish and hydraulic oils. They can reach people via the food chain and cause problems within the immune system, bronchitis, and cancer. 250 grams of salmon a week would be enough to reach the limit of residue recommended by the World Health Organisation.

04:46 - Everywhere people are contributing. Wild salmon have been living in fresh water for three years. Farmed salmon are brought here after one year in the sea basin. There are tons of food, with a computer distributing feed automatically, with everything calculated exactly. The industrial feed is nine millimetres long and weighs 60 milligrams. This is what the salmon supposedly like the most. Everything is accounted for, even the artificially created pigment. The wild salmon naturally absorbs it by eating pearl barley and small animals, and it gives it its typical colour – salmon pink. The use of antibiotics however is strongly denied.

Interviewee: No, we do not use antibiotics in the diet. Only if there are diseases, and in that case the salmon is not slaughtered until all the residues found in its liver are destroyed.

05:49 - The underwater camera shows the reality of factory farming. Nothing is left to chance. The quantity of food has to be carefully controlled, so that the target weight is reached as quickly as possible. The ocean floor must also be given time to recover – from the uneaten feed and salmon excretion. After demonstrations of the large amounts of faecal matter that that salmon produce, it was ordered that fish farming may not operate in the same waters for more than six months.

06:24 - A fishing trawler docks with tanks of seawater and 30 tons of live salmon from the region’s farms. The blue oxygen tanks ensure the salmon’s survival in the darkness. They are pumped directly into the fish factory via huge pipes. These images are not for the faint hearted. Workers cut open the salmon and take their guts out with a suction device. The smell fits the image.

07:00 - On average these fish weigh 10-20kg. The big fish are generally shock-frozen and sent to Japan for sushi and sashimi.

07:18 - The most expensive salmon weighs around 5kg. It is delivered fresh. These are images we know well from other areas of factory farming. This is the fillet machine, and here the fillets are trimmed by hand.

Interviewee: This is the only job I could get, and I am satisfied with the work.

07:51 - Sprecher: The demand for fish has greatly increased since BSE and foot-and-mouth disease.

Interviewee: We kill 30 tons of salmon each day. After the expansion, it will be 100 tons in the coming year. The demand is rising.

08:07 - The price for farmed salmon has also risen. It now costs around four euros per kg. Two weeks ago, it was about three euros. But salmon breeders fear that, after BSE and foot-and-mouth disease, salmon’s problems will come into the limelight and the consumer will lose his appetite.