Vandalism drains thousands of tonnes from Bakkafrost water supply

Someone tampered with the water pipeline supplying Bakkafrost’s hatchery in Skálavík, causing thousands of tonnes of water to flow into the sea instead, Kringvarp Føroya reported.

The incident took place on Wednesday night. Rúni Olsen, Bakkafrost’s land-based farming director in Skálavík, called it shocking.

Bakkafrost had planned to test the new pipeline to the hatchery for the first time last week. The pipeline has been the subject of a long-running dispute over its use in Bakkafrost’s operations.

Olsen said he did not believe the incident could have happened by accident. The system has two wells and four valves in total. The wells are about 20 minutes apart on foot, or slightly closer by all-terrain vehicle, meaning someone would have had to deliberately travel from one to the other to loosen the valves, he said.

Bakkafrost declined to speculate about who was behind the vandalism. The case has been reported to the police.