Ministry of Agriculture and Lands - Fisheries and Aquaculture

The Ministry of Agriculture and Lands has maintained a database of all reported escape events since 1987.

Number of Reported Escaped Farmed Salmon into the Marine Environment 1987 to 2003 (pieces)
Year	Chinook	Coho	Atlantic	Steelhead	Annual Total
1987	22,422	0	0	32,576	54,998
1988	2,000	0	0	0	2,000
1989	390,165	0	0	0	390,165
1990	165,000	0	0	0	165,000
1991	229,500	0	6,650	0	236,150
1992	59,632	0	9,546	0	69,178
1993	12,113	0	9,000	0	21,113
1994	2,300	0	62,809	0	65,109
1995	5,000	1,000	51,883	0	57,883
1996	0	0	13,137	0	13,137
1997	38,956	0	7,472	0	46,428
1998	1,900	0	80,975	0	82,875
1999	0	0	35,954	0	35,954
2000	36,392	0	31,855	0	68,247
2001	0	0	55,414	0	55,414
2002	9,098	100	11,257	0	20,455
2003	9	1	30	0	40
TOTAL	974,487	1,101	375,982	32,576	1,384,146

The factors contributing to escapes can be roughly divided into six general categories:

System Failure: failure of containment structures or anchoring systems that result from a technological failure not related to nets, generally of a catastrophic nature. Can most often be attributed to extreme weather or ecological events (i.e. floods).
Boat Operations: net tears or infrastructure damage resulting from propeller or whole boat collisions with the net pen system.
Net Failure (predators): net tears resulting from seal, sea lion or dogfish attacks.
Net Failure (maintenance): net tears resulting from poor or inadequate maintenance such as chafing of nets due to contact with abrasive equipment, failure to repair small holes, deterioration of nets with age, failure to remove dead fish or debris, etc.
Net Failure (known or suspected vandalism): fish loss resulting from a suspected or known vandalism incident.
Handling: fish loss that results during fish handling events such as fish transfer, net changes, towing, sorting, grading, harvesting, etc and is not related to failure of the integrity of a net-pen or containment structure. This type of escape can generally be directly attributed to human error.