ANOTHER mass die-off. Mowi confirmed its operations at its Little Bay marine site off the coast of Newfoundland, lost around 210,611 Atlantic salmon in October due to sea lice treatment. Intrafish however, estimates the loss at 270,000 based on 2.7 million fish held at the site and which were market-ready size.
Is this the 3rd or 4th farmed salmon die-off in the North East Atlantic within the past two months? Its hard to keep up. We're simply volunteers trying to share the latest news on the open net-pen industry whenever we have a spare moment but frankly it would be a full-time job just to post news on the catastrophes and failed government oversight of this industry around the globe.
From Alexandra Morton's Facebook page - "MOWI is killing its own fish while trying to control sea lice. This is a bright red flag to First Nations that the lice have beat these companies and will continue to infest and kill both farmed and wild salmon... And FYI - they were NOT open in sharing the true numbers of fish they killed during treatment. "
"This, just two years after the CEO of MOWI had to apologize to Newfoundland for under reporting the death of 2.6 million farm salmon. They did not admit to it until rotting salmon flesh coated the beaches. "
Full article by Intrafish was posted in the comment section of Alexandra's facebook post which we've linked. We've also copied and pasted the article in full below.
"Mowi's latest Canada farmed salmon loss was due to sea lice treatment. The company had not previously disclosed what kind of treatment caused the death of thousands of fish off the Newfoundland coast in October."
5 November 2021 6:02 GMT Updated 5 November 2021 12:36 GMT By Rachel Mutter
"Mowi confirmed its operations at its Little Bay marine site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, lost around 210,611 Atlantic salmon.
The company didn't give a number when it initially announced the loss on Oct. 23, but IntraFish estimated the loss at 270,000 fish based on the 2.7 million fish held at the site. Under Newfoundland regulations, salmon farming companies are required to report "abnormal mortalities" exceeding 10 percent.
The farm site was already scheduled for harvest at the time of the loss and is expected to be fallowed by early December, according to a new update from the company submitted to the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture by Communications Director Ian Roberts.
The company blamed post-treatment mortality that followed fish health treatments for the loss, and the mortality was not observed in a singular event but rather over the course of several weeks. Mowi has now divulged that treatment was for sea lice.
Most of the mortality was already removed from the sites when the initial public notice was made, and extra resources were deployed to expedite the cleanup work.
The company will continue to review the environmental challenges experienced over the past months and develop enhanced strategies to manage the sea lice and environmental pressures in the area, said Roberts.
In September Mowi released anticipated losses from a warm-weather related die-off at an eastern Canada farming site, estimating that a total of 450,000 fish would ultimately be lost in the incident -- around half the total fish at the site. The fish were close to market size at the time of the event. Mowi first reported losses on Sept. 11, which occurred at a site on the south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador known as The Gorge.(Copyright)"