Nearly half a million smolts died after power supply failure
The incident at Mowi's hatchery in Vågafossen, Norway, led to the death of over 475,000 fish.
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A large number of fish with an average weight of around 160 grams died in May as a result of a welfare incident at Mowi's hatchery in Vågafossen in Rogaland, which produces salmon smolts.
This is shown by documents that LandbasedAQ has been given access to.
The cause of the incident was a technical failure on May 20 in the older RAS facility built in 2014. It led to acute high mortality, with low subsequent mortality.
"A technical failure in a power supply that is supposed to ensure continuous operation (uniterruptible power supply) led to critically low oxygen levels and increased mortality in four tanks at our facility in Vågafossen in Vikedal," Morten Bertelsen, communications director at Mowi, told LandbasedAQ.
Several tanks affected
According to the notification that the fish farming company sent to the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, 475,054 fish died as a result of the incident. In addition, it is estimated that around 39,000 fish were weakened.
In the hardest hit tank, only seven out of 124,313 fish survived.
Mowi states that the remaining weakened fish at the facility were euthanised for welfare reasons.
"It is regrettable that technical failure affects us in this way. The employees handled the situation well under demanding conditions. The plant is scheduled to return to normal operation next week."
