This standard is designed for fish farm personnel, fish health professionals, researchers, and public agencies who need a unified way to report, describe, and analyze mortality in aquaculture. Developed by scientists and fish farmers in a project led by AquaCloud, it introduces a shared classification system that enables consistent, high-quality data use across the industry.

Key applications include: 

• Monitoring and benchmarking at site, company, PO and national levels
• Resource planning for farms, suppliers, researchers, and authorities
• Connecting mortality data with interventions, diagnostics, and environmental conditions
• Building a stronger foundation for research, innovation, and future standards

A shared code list allows data from different companies to be compiled and compared across sites, zones, and regions. It includes a structure for grouping causes and covers events like destruction, downgrading, and discards—enabling total losses to be broken down by cause.

Olav Jamtøy and the AquaCloud expert group for fish health and welfare engaged a team of experts from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) Veterinary School, led by Professor II in Aquaculture Health Management, Arnfinn Aunsmo DVM PhD, to carry out a research project aimed at developing a standard for classifying and categorising causes of loss and mortality in salmon and trout. The report was delivered in the fall of 2021.

Based on this work, fish farmers who have adopted the new standard and also share data via AquaCloud can now access datasets that provide a comprehensive understanding of the situation in their region.

This enables them to compare their performance with nearby fish farmers and identify local challenges contributing to fish mortality. At the same time, it also provides an ongoing overview at both regional and national levels.