Grieg Seafood Newfoundland has announced it plans to delay the stocking of facilities in Marystown, Newfoundland, Canada, until 2022 after a suspected positive test for infectious salmon anemia (ISA) arose in a single fish.
The detection occurred earlier this summer during routine sampling, and while an additional 295 negative samples – and no positives – have been collected by provincial veterinary authorities, the company decided to take a “precautionary approach” to avoid complications.
“We have said from the beginning that we will develop our farming operations in Placentia Bay gradually, responsibly, and sustainably. As such, we believe it is right to apply the precautionary approach in this situation and postpone the transfer to sea to the spring of 2022,” Grieg Seafood Newfoundland Managing Director Knut Skeidsvoll said. “Even though none of the additional 295 samples detected any virus, we do not want to risk introducing ISA into the environment and possibly farm fish in the sea without optimal conditions for fish health and welfare.”
According to the company, Placentia Bay – the area of water that the farms would be in – is a “promising area for salmon farming” that has no prior history of ISA. As such, the company doesn’t want to take any chances that it could introduce ISA to the area.
However, the stocking delay will force the company to cull almost one million fish that were scheduled for sea transfer later this summer.
“All of these fish are in the same RAS system as the one fish with the detection, and the company would not have been able to maintain its fish health and welfare standard in sea should the virus exist in this fish group,” Grieg said.
Grieg Seafood ASA signed share purchase agreements to acquire Grieg Newfoundland AS in February 2020, with plans to use Placentia Bay as an area to raise salmon. The first phase of the project was slated to produce 15,000 metric tons of salmon from 2025, with the first fish expected at the end of 2022 or start of 2023.
According to Grieg Newfoundland, the financial impact of the postponement is minor, as it was an early group of fish that had “few individuals compared to regular operations.” Skeidsvoll said the postponement doesn’t change the company’s plans for Placentia Bay, and that the 15,000-metric-ton target remains.
“Our plans and vision beyond this first group of fish have not changed, and we are using the experience gained to improve for the next generation,” he said. “We are confident that we will be able to build a strong farming region in Newfoundland during the next years, and create jobs and value for the local communities here.”
Photo courtesy of Grieg NL
