SalMar loses over a million salmon in jellyfish attack
The group also reported an accident at one of its hatcheries resulting in the death of 200,000 fry.
Norwegian salmon giant SalMar was forced to cull approximately 1.2 million salmon in November following a jellyfish attack at one of its sites.
A few days later, the amount of jellyfish increased further and the extent of damage to the salmon worsened.
For fish welfare reasons, SalMar decided to destroy all the fish on the site. The location had approximately 1.2 million salmon with an average weight of 0.3 kilos.
"The incident will not affect SalMar financially beyond the value of the destroyed fish," said the company. "Nor will it have an impact on guided slaughter volume."
Until the jellyfish attack, the mortality rate at the location was around 1 percent.
"Our staff worked together with people from an external emergency boat intensively on a 24-hour basis to deal with the acute and deplorable situation that arose due to this unusual and violent invasion of [jellyfish]," said SalMar. After three to four days the operation was finished.
Jellyfish are one of several risk factors in fish farming, but it is very rare that they cause damage to the fish as in this case.
Approximately 20 years ago, a SalMar location on Froya, Norway, was exposed to a similarly powerful jellyfish attack.
Hatchery accident
SalMar also reported an incident that led to the death of approximately 200,000 fry weighing on average 7 grams each at its hatchery in Jovika, Senja.
The incident was the result of defective installation of barriers in a fish tank, which led to the fish ending up in the recirculation aquaculture facility, biofilter and fish trap.
The fish trap, which is an additional barrier to prevent escape, captured most of the fry, but an estimated 200 fry of 7 grams, which are not adapted to the sea, ended up in the ocean.
The group said it is keeping the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Directorate of Fisheries informed and up to date, and is working with its supplier to make the necessary equipment adjustments to prevent something similar from happening again.
"This regrettable incident has also been handled in a professional manner by SalMar's employees," it said. "Analysis of the incident will form the basis of the company's further work to improve safety and fish welfare in our facilities."
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