Salmones Austral announces the loss 200,000 fish.
Companies continue to count the cost following the latest bloom of toxic algae in Chile’s Aysén region.
On Tuesday, Chilean salmon producer Salmones Austral reported to the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF) that on 8 January, the Centro Ester site owned by the subsidiary company Salmones Pacific Star, was affected by an outbreak of harmful algae bloom “which has produced a high mortality with it.”
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According to the company, contingency and mitigation protocols provided for these situations were activated, and the respective authorities were informed. Meanwhile a mortality extraction plan has been launched in the affected site, for which “all the necessary resources and logistics have been committed, including technical personnel.”
The total number of fish in the Ester Center – prior to the event – was about 792,278, with an average weight of 692 grams said Chile’s Diario Financiero.
“With the information available to date, the reported harmful algae flowering event has generated for subsidiary Salmones Pacific Star an estimated mortality of 200,000 fish, equivalent to 25 per cent of the farm’s biomass, and an approximate value of US$1,150,000,” the company acknowledged.
