Grieg Seafood assesses avalanche damage

Another attempt will be made today to establish whether any fish have escaped from a Grieg Seafood owned fish farm in Northern Norway that was struck by an avalanche yesterday.
No-one was injured but a number of salmon cages were damaged and the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries says there is a possibility that some fish may have escaped, although this has yet to be confirmed.
The incident took place early on Monday near Altafjord where Grieg has an estimated 1.2 million salmon at various stages of cultivation.
A close inspection was ruled out yesterday because of fears of further landslides, but the Directorate said it is closely monitoring the situation and would need to get a full overview of what has happened.
Operations manager Eirik Pedersen told the broadcaster NRK that the area suffered three landslides, but no members of staff were on site at the time.
Pedersen said in an SMS: “An avalanche has hit parts of one of our facilities in Alta municipality. All employees are safe and the authorities and the Alta municipality have been notified.
“We are working to get an overview of the situation and we will come back when we have more information.”
NRK said the area was already being monitored over the risk of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA).
All of central and northern Norway is covered in deep snow at this time of year, but the weather has been far colder than usual recently with reports of domestic water supplies cut off and wild fish frozen solid in rivers.
Avalanches can be triggered by a number of factors, such as high winds or rising temperatures.
The authorities say it is too risky to send in inspection crews until geologists have assessed the risk of further avalanches. Vessels equipped with underwater cameras are on their way to the site.