SalMar's land-based smolt facility in Senja, Troms County, has culled approximately 2 million juvenile fish following a significant mortality incident in which almost 600,000 juvenile fish died, according to local reports.
The incident, reported by regional newspaper Folkebladet this week based on information from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority Mattilsynet, led to the death of a reported 573,776 smolt.
According to Folkebladet, the cause of death was attributed to gill disease, potentially caused by disinfectant residues in a supply pipe, although this has not been confirmed.
SalMar has not as yet released any official information or statement regarding the incident or its potential causes.
The incident is not the first fish mortality event to strike SalMar's Senja facility. In December 2023, an estimated 30,000-40,000 salmon fry were killed following a technical error, according to Mattilsynet information released at the time.
Salmar’s RAS facility in Senja island, located about 200km west of Tromsø, is designed to supply smolt to all of the company’s sea sites in northern Norway. The RAS consists of two units with a combined capacity of close to 29 million Atlantic salmon smolt of 120g per year.