Northern Sea Harvest says some 2.6-million salmon have been killed as the result of what company officials are calling a “warm water event” this summer.
Jamie Gaskill, the Managing Director of Northern Harvest Sea Farms says two million fish were affected at six sites, which was reported to government on September 3.
The company today informed government that another 600,000 fish were affected at four more sites.
Gaskill says that 2.6 million fish have died during the “mass mortality” over 6 sites. That is half of northern harvest sea farms stock.
600,000 more weakened fish were reported to government today. @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/qqUbLXwaMx— AmyFitzpatrickVOCM (@AmyVocm) October 11, 2019
The company is still assessing the potential impact on jobs.
Gaskill admits they should have advised of the mortalities earlier, and he takes personal responsibility.
He says no fish escaped from the pens involved.
87 per cent of the cleanup is completed, 63 of the 72 cages are now cleaned, while they expect the remainder of the cages to be cleaned by the end of next week.
Earlier Story
Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne suspended Northern Harvest’s licences after the company reported that further fish were affected by the mass die-off in early September.
Byrne says as a result of the ongoing investigation and evidence of non-compliance, he is suspending all affected Northern Harvest Seafood Farms licences and is directing the company to continue the cleanup of the sites.
He is also amending license conditions to all Northern Harvest sites that are not affected as well as other MOWI license sites in the coming days. The minister is also seeking an in-person meeting with the international president of MOWI.
View his full statement below: