Storms cause salmon deaths in Newfoundland
Cooke Aquaculture has blamed severe winter storms for unusually high mortality at a farm near Baie d’Espoir on the south coast of Newfoundland, eastern Canada.
The Canadian company lost around 77,000 fish, about 14% of the 550,000 salmon at the site, it said in a statement reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Cooke said it thinks the deaths happened in two of eight cages on the farm, which is run by its subsidiary Cold Ocean Salmon Inc.
It is cleaning the dead fish and harvesting the surviving stock in the affected cages.
Demanding updates
Fisheries minister Gerry Byrne told reporters that the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) government is following the situation very closely and is demanding continuous updates from Cooke.
Byrne was accused by opponents of covering up the die-off of 2.6 million fish at sites run by Mowi-owned Northern Harvest Sea Farms last year, but said he had no authority to disclose the mortality.
He also argued that he had not been fully informed of the extent of the die-off and has suspended 10 of Mowi’s licences.
The province has since made changes to the law, including requiring public reporting of incidents like deaths or disease at fish farms.
“The system is in part working in that they [Cooke] disclosed once a relatively high number [of deaths] was realized,” Byrne told reporters.
