1.9 million young fish die at Lerøy smolt facility
Norwegian salmon farmer Lerøy lost 1.9 million smolts in a die-off at one of its land-based facilities earlier this month, it has been reported.
“Lerøy Sjøtroll Kjærelva has had an incident in the pre-smolt department in the facility where we lost close to 1.9 million smolt that were due to go to sea in December, and March 2024,” Lerøy Sjøtroll general manager Morten E Fjæreide told one of Fish Farming Exoert’s Norwegian sister sites, LandbasedAQ.
“We take fish welfare very seriously and are upset by having suffered such a great loss. Our focus now is to deal with the acute situation, and work to find the root cause of the incident. We would like to take this opportunity to praise our employees who have stood up in this demanding situation.”
When it comes to production, he explained that Lerøy is in a position to replace the smolt from other facilities in the value chain.
According to Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries, a total of 60 million farmed salmon and rainbow trout died in the sea in in Norway last year, while 141 million died in land-based facilities.
