Escape alert at Arnarlax salmon farm

The incident took place at its location at Vatneyri in Patreksfjörður, where some 117,000 salmon are located.

 

The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority received a notification from Arnarlax around a week ago.

 

The hole was discovered during a routine underwater inspection and the repair was completed the same day.

 

According to Arnarlax, the hole was a 50 x 25 cm slot at a depth of 20 meters. In this particular pen there were 117,133 salmon with an average weight of approximately 3 kg.

 

The last underwater inspection was carried out on 23 February and the net was intact at that time, the company said.

 

The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority has since ordered that all fish pens in the farming area be  inspected by divers to ensure that similar holes were not present in other fish pens.

 

In addition, the Authority ordered that the specific fish pens affected be dived under in search of possible escaped salmon.

 

Nets were set out near the fish pens in consultation with the Icelandic Fisheries Agency to capture any salmon that may have escaped, but no salmon were caught in the nets or seen during the dives under the pens.

 

The Authority said it is investigating the matter and is investigating, among other things, whether a spill occurred and whether Arnarlax has activated and followed its own procedures and response plans.

 

When the investigation into the incident is complete, a monitoring report on the investigation will be issued.

 

Arnarlax is part of Icelandic Salmon AS which is turn is majority owned by the Norway salmon giant, SalMar.