A Northern Harvest farm in Newfoundland. The Mowi subsidiary was hit by a massive fish die-off caused by warm water. Photo: NH.

Mowi’s Newfoundland die-off sites now cleared of morts

Mowi subsidiary Northern Harvest has removed all the 2.6 million salmon killed by unusually warm water in the Fortune Bay area of Newfoundland, it said in a short Facebook post.

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“As of Friday, October 25, all salmon mortalities have been removed from all affected sites,” stated the company.

“Northern Harvest is committed to being as thorough and comprehensive in its response effort as possible, and we continue to keep our staff focused on any remaining site clean-up activity.

“We thank all our staff who have played important roles in this unprecedented clean-up effort, as well as the seiner and dive teams, and all supply and service groups who have worked tirelessly with us throughout our response.”

Licences suspended

Earlier this month Mowi revealed that although the fish mortalities were insured, the die-off had cost it €5 million in net one-off costs. It blamed the loss of 5,000 tonnes of fish on prolonged high seawater temperatures that created low oxygen conditions.

Licences for the 10 farms affected by the mortality event have been suspended by the province’s fisheries department. Mowi has another 37 sites in Newfoundland which were unaffected and continue to operate as normal.

Mowi Canada holds 59 licences in Canada East, 47 of which are in Newfoundland and 12 in New Brunswick.