Salmon farming centre. (Photo: Stock File)

Salmon farmers implement plan to prevent harmful algae mortalities

Since last October, the Chilean salmon industry has doubled the number of stations and sampling to detect early episodes of harmful algal blooms as part of a plan to prevent mortalities in its salmon farming centres.

According to El Mercurio, the general manager of Intesal - technical arm of SalmonChile - Alfredo Tello, the program that leads the industry under the auspices of the guild has a short-term component, which is practically doubling the detection stations of harmful algae and quadrupling sampling. Adding to this, some companies have implemented systems that move water from the depth to the contaminated surface, to mitigate the effects on the fish in the centres of cultivation. He pointed out that earlier detection can lead to foresee episodes of bloom and, with previous permission of the authorities, move fish to safer places, avoiding and reducing biomass losses by mortalities.

The balance on this issue, after the episode that affected the industry at the beginning of last year, was devastating. In total, 39,000 tonnes of biomass were lost, equivalent to 28 million fish, volume with a harvest potential of 100,000 tonnes. In turn, the industry recognized an impact on employment of about 5,000 jobs.

Tello added that in the medium and long term, the industry promotes an agenda that seeks to generate scientific knowledge and technological implementation that will increase the degree of anticipation and mitigation to these episodes, but also indicated that this work intends to involve other actors who are affected by these algae on the coastal edge, such as fish farmers and artisanal fishers. He stressed that it is important to generate a permanent financing mechanism to combat this phenomenon, something that is being studied with Corfo.

Source: El Mercurio

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