Incident follows a previous mortality event in October, in which 1.9 million fish died at the same facility.
Just under half a million smolt died at salmon farming giant Leroy Seafood’s facility in Norway, earlier this month.
“At the beginning of March, we had a demanding situation at our smolt facility Kjærelva in Fitjar municipality in Sunnhordaland,” wrote Morten Fjæreide, general manager of Lerøy Sjøtroll, in a statement on Monday.
“We suspect that there have been challenges with the water quality, and that this has unfortunately led to 490,000 smolts not surviving. In total, we had a stock of 1.9 million.”
“We immediately implemented measures and have moved the smolt into new vessels and a new water environment. We take this incident very seriously and have reported the matter to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority,” said Fjæreide.
The surviving fish are exhibiting signs of recovery, with increased appetite observed.
“Although we have control over the situation now, it is too early to say anything about the cause and go into more detail about the course of events. We assure you that we take our responsibility in this situation, and we are now focusing on securing the health of the remaining fish and preventing further incidents,” said Fjæreide.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority is set to conduct inspections at the facility this week. Fjæreide expressed readiness for the inspection and stressed the importance of continued dialogue to prevent similar incidents.
