With the numbers stacking up higher in Chilean salmon losses, salmon farmers in British Columbia feel the pain.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, salmon farms in BC and Washington state lost more than $35 million (€31.2 million) in fish due to algae blooms -- specifically Heterosigma akashiwo and Chaetoceros blooms, according to a North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) scientific report.
The first recorded Cochlodinium sp. algal bloom led to losses of about $1.5 million (€1.4 million) in just 1999. That year, BC formed the Harmful Algae Monitoring Program (HAMP), which regularly monitors selected sites near salmon farms, tracks fish-killing blooms and educates salmon farm workers on sampling and identification of relevant marine phytoplankton, according to marine phytoplankton consultancy Microthalassia.
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