BC salmon farms coping despite blooms
The extremely high levels of domoic acid produced by a record-breaking algal bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia has resulted in closures of several fisheries from California up to Alaska, and has been a major cause for concern for salmon in net pens. However, despite this huge bloom, producers in BC are not reporting significant losses.
A plankton expert with Marine Harvest Canada, Jay Pudota, commented that the very warm and conditions this year has resulted in all producers having to monitor for plankton much earlier than expected.
This is especially true for the west and east coasts of Vancouver Island where farms operated by Marine Harvest and Grieg were forced to implement mitigation factors in order to avoid mortality.
The managing director for Grieg Seafood, Stewart Hawthorn, mentioned that the current algal bloom is not causing any major issues, which he attributes to the mitigation tools they have in place. Aside from a few mortalities and some periods of reduced feed intake, it appears that good husbandry and monitoring technologies are paying off.
