Chile's Salmon Farms Lose $800m as Algal Bloom Kills Millions of Fish
A deadly algal bloom has hit the world’s second biggest salmon exporter, Chile, where nearly 23 million fish have already died and the economic impact from lost production has soared to $800m (£565m), industry and government sources told Reuters.
The dead fish could easily fill 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools, said Jose Miguel Burgos, the head of the government’s Sernapesca fisheries body.
Unusually high ocean temperatures, due in large part to the El Niño weather phenomenon, have fuelled the algal bloom that has affected 37 of the nearly 415 salmon farms operating in southern Chile. Most of the farms are in ocean enclosures or estuaries.
Scottish Salmon Producers' Organization