28,000 fish caught to date.
The Chilean salmon farmer Blumar, who lost around 1 million fish following a storm which hit and sunk its cages, is asking authorities for a further 30 days to continue the process of a recapture of escaped salmon.
Under Chilean law, a company has 30 days to do so. Within that period, it must recapture at least ten per-cent or “environmental damage is assumed”.
At the beginning of July, the incident affected cages in Los Lagos, southern Chile, containing up to 875,144 salmon average weight of 3.8kg.
On Friday, Blumar posted a press release explaining that it is inspecting the sunken cages, which are 300m underwater, with the support of ROV (remote-operated vehicle) submarine robots.
“This has allowed us to obtain reliable and accurate images of the cages, as well as model the topography of the background and accurately georeference the sunken module,” it wrote.
“Finally, we inform the authority, as indicated by the rule, for a further 30 days to continue the process of the recapture of escaped salmon in collaboration with the artisanal fishermen in the area, work that to date has allowed more than 28,000 fish to be caught,” it added.
