200K smolt lost in Grieg Shetland fire

UP to 200,000 fry have been lost in a fire which hit the Grieg Seafood Girlsta hatchery on Shetland earlier this week, the company has confirmed. However, at least three million fish were saved.

The fire is thought to have started in an oxygen delivery system at the site. The emergency services were called and the outbreak was soon brought under control.

Grant Cummings, CEO of Grieg Seafood Shetland, said in the press statement that the most important result is that no employees were injured during this incident. He added:

\’The staff did exactly what they were trained to do in such incidents, which minimized the fire. I would like to thank the team at Girlsta for their prompt action and problem solving, which has minimized the scale of the incident. I also want to thank the Shetland Fire Department and our engineering supplier Ocean Kinetics for responding so quickly. We will go through all aspects of the event to prevent it from happening again.\’

Thanking Shetland Fire Service and Grieg staff for their rapid response to the incident, he also said that the fire would not impact on company plans for releasing young fish into the sea.

Grieg Seafood says Shetland has unique conditions for farming salmon with most of the fish produced in the region sold into UK markets. The operation in Shetland which has benefitted from considerable investment in recent years, has an estimated production capacity of around 200,000 tonnes, gutted weight. Grieg recently reported much improved price achievement from Shetland during the first quarter of 2020.