Chile’s aquaculture and fisheries authority Sernapesca says it has wrapped up the cleanup of the production site of salmon farmer Multi-X in Cochamó in the Los Lagos region of Chile.
In a statement released on Sernapesca’s website, the agency revised the previous mortality figure downwards from 300,000 to 250,000. The dead fish weighing 1,075 tons are now destined for fishmeal processing plants.
The mass mortality event was linked to a fall in oxygen, which had seen the company implement its contingency plan for such event, beginning the extraction of the fish caught up in the die-off. It is believed that the situation was an isolated incident linked to the one site.
Sernapesca has confirmed that it is working with Multi X and the country’s maritime authority to monitor the extraction of the deceased fish, as well as keeping a watch on other farm sites in the area to ensure no other mass mortality events have occured.
“At Sernapesca we are working with the members of the Inter-institutional Committee for Environmental Contingencies of the Los Lagos region, in which the Seremi of Economy, the Seremi of the Environment, the Seremi of Health, the Superintendence of the Environment, the Institute of Fomento Pesquero, the Navy and Subpesca, to jointly evaluate the actions around the contingency,” Branny Montecinos, Regional Director of Sernapesca Los Lagos, said.
“For our part, we will maintain the monitoring of all the farming centers that are in the area, supervising each one of the processes, from mortality management until its final disposal,” Montecinos added.
