130,000+ #salmon die off in #salmon farm in #Canada

Salmon losses at Cermaq Group’s farm sites off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, have exceeded 100,000 fish, the company told Undercurrent News.

The first mortalities — caused by an algal bloom — were detected at the beginning of last week. “Efforts have been made to avoid further stress on surviving fish and maximize animal welfare, and dead fish have been continuously collected and are being transported for use in either rendering or compost,” the firm said.

Collection and transport have been following strict biosecurity processes.

“So far we have removed 130,000 fish. Before the algae bloom hit, we had a total of 1.4 million fish in these three farm sites.”

The company expects to be finished with removing the mortalities by the end of this week, though this depends on the further development of the bloom, it added.

All three farms have been taking measures to reduce the risk of such events, but this bloom is moving at lower depths to usual, meaning some of Cermaq’s tools like algae skirts or bubble curtains have not been effective.

Courtesy of undercurrentnews.com

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