Thousands of 1-kilo sized fish died at a Mowi Chile site last week.
It was the third mass mortality from different salmon farmers reported in only a few weeks, prompting fears of an algae bloom.
On Friday, SalmonBusiness reported that Chilean authorities Sernapesca had been informed by Mowi Chile about estimated mortality of 20,000 1-kg Atlantic salmon at a site in northern Chiloé, in the Lagos region of southern Chile.
A Mowi spokesperson told SalmonBusiness that the cause of fish mortality was a drop of oxygen levels.
“These kinds of events with low oxygen are quite common at this time of year and occur after the summer season. The site had been planted in December 2019 and we are talking about fish that have just reached an average weight of one kilo. The death toll is just under 15,000 fish. Withdrawal tasks ended last Friday and mortality is being transferred to authorized final disposal sites,” said Mowi.
Two other sites did lose fish to algae blooms in April. Invermar lost nearly a million fish to algae bloom outbreak of Cochlodinium sp early in the month.
Last Thursday, Granja Marina Tornagaleones (Marine Farm) lost 10,000 harvest size salmon from red tide further south in Aysén Region, Chilean Patagonia.
