Bakkafrost seeks cause of 750,000 dead fish

BAKKAFROST reported the death last month of hundreds of thousands of fish at one of its salmon farming sites on the Faroe Islands, with the precise cause still unknown.

However, it is beginning to look as if the spread of a potentially harmful algae could be at the heart of the problem which has so far killed 750,000 fish.

The big Faroese salmon company said in a statement that it had recorded an ‘elevated mortality level’ at farming site A-81 Kolbanagjógv on September 20.

Bakkafrost added: ‘Approximately 750,000 fish with an average weight of 500g live weight died within a couple of hours. The fish at farming site A-81 Kolbanagjógv was released into the sea in June - August 2018.

‘It has not been possible to confirm the cause of the incident, but algae phaeocystis, pseudo-nitzscia and heterosigma were registered in the sea at farming site A-81 Kolbanagjógv on September 20 2018, and the algae are suspected to have caused the mortality incident.’

All three possible causes are forms of algae with heterosigma which is also known as harmful algal bloom.