Photographs show massive salmon deaths at Arctic Fish in Þingeyri
Photographs taken at the port of Þingeyri yesterday show the large-scale death of farmed salmon that the company Arctic Fish is dealing with in its sea pens in Dýrafjörður.
The salmon death is a result of the weather that has raged in the Westfjords, but the cold and rolling in sea pens create bad living conditions for farmed salmon, which can get winter sores when they rub against the pens. If the farmed salmon become sick, they are not suitable for human consumption and die in the pens.
Such farmed salmon that die due to weather or diseases in sea pens are called dead fish.
Description of dead fish and its collection
A former employee of one of the large Icelandic salmon farming companies describes the death of salmon in sea pens in the following way – the man does not want to be named: “When the salmon dies in the net, it sinks to the bottom. Then it is pumped up from the bottom with a method called “lift up” and then it goes into a cart. Some of these are fish that are badly damaged and damaged on the head, the eyes are gone, but before they die they float up and can float on the surface for even 24 hours before they die. The fish that looks the worst and is in tights is a fish that has been lying around longer and the bay has already worked on it. The fish will be like this after two to three days, the skin will come off and it will become wool. The fish that look better are newly dead,” says the former employee who, among other things, collected dead fish from sea pens.
“Why these fish die varies greatly. Some die of winter sores. Most of the time, they get a wound on their head after sailing outside the net, and it doesn’t heal in this cold, but just grows and grows until the head is actually completely gone. There is congestion in the canal and when they get these winter sores, they are doomed.”
Fishing baskets full of dead fish that cannot be used for human consumption stand on the pier. The baskets are emptied into a ship from the Norwegian company Hordafor, which processes digesta, animal feed, from the dead fish. Arctic Fish thus receives something for the farmed salmon that die in the pens, and the raw material can be used in some way.
Daniel: The extent of the salmon death is unclear
As Stundin discussed yesterday, the salmon death rate at Arctic Fish in Dýrafjörður is much higher and hyped spoke at the end of January.
Daníel Jakobsson, employee of Arctic Fish and leader of the Independence Party in Ísafjörður town council, told Stundina when asked. “Unfortunately, losses like this occur, but are much greater than what is calculated in our plans. The fish in question was in very good condition at the end of the year and this generation was aiming to be one of the best when it comes to shedding and growth. The reasons for the declines are not known, but are probably an interaction of stimuli on the fish, such as weather, transport and handling of the fish in combination with 1 degree cold sea.”
“We have reported that it could be about 3% of the biomass that would be 300 tons, but it is clear that it will be more.”
Judging from the pictures from Þingeyri, it is clear that the salmon mortality at the company is significant. Daniel could not answer yesterday how great he was: “It is not definitive. We have announced that it could be about 3% of the biomass, which would be 300 tons, but it is clear that it will be more, this has been happening since the beginning of the year and although this has decreased, losses are still significant. The fish had reached a slaughter size of about 5 kg. However, there are not many actual winter sores on the fish, and what we are slaughtering is of first and second class quality.”
According to Daniel’s answers, it is therefore not possible to say anything about the extent of the salmon death in Dýrafjörður at this stage of the case.
Salmon mortality up to 20 percent
The man who worked for a salmon farming company in Iceland said that when he worked in the industry, the salmon mortality was around 15 percent, but that it had risen to 20 percent over the past year. “The rule of thumb in this is that if the salmon mortality is kept below 10 percent, then everyone is satisfied, but if it is over 15 percent, then people are unhappy, says the man, but according to him, this salmon mortality then this issue of shyness in Iceland.”
The man says that salmon mortality in Iceland is higher than in Norway. “Out in Norway, everything would be wrong if the salmon mortality was so high. This is due to the fact that Icelanders care more about quantity than quality. Too many fish are put in at night and the congestion will be too great,” he says.