Mowi Chile has reported the death of some 20,000 Atlantic salmon at its Pulelo farming center on Chiloé Island, in southern Chile’s Los Lagos region, making it the third operator to report mortality incidents in just two weeks.
The company informed Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) on 15 April of the occurrence, affecting the fish weighing one kilogram each. Sernapesca said it is performing daily monitoring of the actions that Mowi has implemented in compliance with contingency plans.
While the cause of mortality is being evaluated, the government agency said this was an isolated event.
“No other farming centers with abnormal mortality have been detected in the area and Sernapesca continues to maintain its surveillance and monitoring strategy of the companies’ mortality reports,” it said.
The incident is the second reported such event in less than a week. On 12 April, Marine Farm notified Sernapesca of mass Atlantic salmon mortality at its Mellimoyu center in the Aysén region. The presence of the cochlodinium algae led to the death of 10,000 fish with an average weight of 4.3 kilograms.
At the time, Sernapesca also said the incident was isolated, with no other plants in the area reporting abnormal mortality due to the presence of algae or other causes, and that it was monitoring Marine Farm’s compliance of contingency plans.
Prior to that, on 2 April, Invermar reported mass mortality at one of its Tepun production centers in Quellón, also on the Island of Chiloé, which was holding a total population of 937,257 coho salmon weighing approximately 780 grams each. The microalgae cochlodinium was detected at the site.
Sernapesca later reported that a total 92 percent of the total population had been affected by the outbreak, killing 861,067 fish.
On the island of Chiloé, local protests against salmon farming activities – together with the national government’s move to cordon off the island to protect the residents against the spread of COVID-19 – have interrupted the logistics chain for the care of salmon stocks, hampering the care of salmon in grow-out facilities and the transport of stock to processing centers.
Photo courtesy of Sernapesca
