Fire causes 20,000 salmon to escape into B.C. waters
Mowi Canada West has determined the cause of a mass fish escape from a farm site located north east of Campbell River, British Columbia.
The company spent the holidays investigating the cause of a fire that lead to the escape.
“We have determined the damage to a pen on the Robertson Island farm over the weekend was very likely caused by an electrical fire,” said a Mowi Canada West news release.
“The fire damaged the floats supporting the pen as well as the surrounding netting, causing the pen to partially submerge and creating a gap allowing most salmon to escape. There were approximately 21,000 fish remaining in the pen at the time of the fire as most fish at the site had already been harvested last week. Workers have removed about 1,200 remaining salmon from the pen, so about 20,000 escaped.
“Harvesting of the entire farm has been completed over the last few days, so there are no fish remaining at the site.”
Capture mission
“While many of the escaped fish have likely been eaten by seals and sea lions congregating in the area, we will be working to recover as many of the remaining salmon as possible. We are coordinating with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans(DFO) and area First Nations to survey streams and other waterways in the region starting this week in order to catch any Atlantic salmon observed."
Mowi Canada West added that it will fund the capture mission.
“Additional efforts have been suggested and are being discussed with First Nations and the DFO. The damaged pen will be towed to a secure site on land for further investigation and dismantling in the coming days.
“Mowi would like to again apologize for this incident. We have used net pens of this design for more than 20 years in B.C. with few issues, but if our investigation turns up any actions we can take to ensure this does not happen again we will take them. We will also be inspecting the electrical systems on all our farms in the coming days.”
