After many weeks of seismic activity, Iceland's Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula south of Reykjavík has finally erupted on 18 December.
Arctic char farmer Matorka is the land-based aquaculture facility located closest to the volcano, at just over 7km from the eruption site, and located near the port town of Grindavík, which has been evacuated since November.
But despite having a front-row seat for the seismic events, Matorka is continuing its fish farming operations as normal, says CEO Christo du Plessis.
In a LinkedIn update on 19 December, Matorka confirmed that the volcanic eruption has not directly affected the company's facilities or operations, and all the staff are safe and well.
Du Plessis applauded the Matorka staff, saying "again the team came through with flying colours".
"After weeks of earthquakes and uncertainty, a volcanic eruption happened last night (18 December) just after 10 pm," the company posted on its LinkedIn profile.
"The eruption started with little warning and quickly grew from a single fountain of lava to a 4km long fissure northeast of Grindavík, spewing lava up to 100m in the air."
"By early morning the flow had decreased considerably. The prevailing wind has also blown gases from the eruption towards the east, away from our farm."
"All our staff are safe, and we did not suffer any damage due to the eruption. Our teams have been granted ongoing access to the farm, which is more than 7km from the eruption. This is very good news to ensure that we can continue to harvest fish and proceed with Christmas orders."
"It is important to note that there is no imminent threat to Matorka’s operations and the safety of our staff is of utmost importance."
"The situation remains fluid and all volcanic updates can be found on the Icelandic news site RUV," the company statement added.
On 6 December, du Plessis told WeAreAquaculture that the company was back on track following the earthquake damage in November, having taken steps to stabilize the farming operations after suffering damage to one tank, as well as relocating processing operations to an alternative facility outside of Grindavík.
"We are very positive about our future prospects and still have a full pipeline of fish of all sizes. We are confident of fulfilling orders for the Christmas period and ramp up total harvest quantities in Q1 2024 as planned prior to the earthquakes," he said at the time.
The area around Grindavík has been under alert since 24 October, when the seismic events began, with the town evacuated since 10 November, when 20,000 tremors were recorded, the largest of which exceeded magnitude 5.3.
