COPENHAGEN – About 96,000 farmed salmon are believed to have died when a leak in a tank sent 15,000 liters (4,000 gallons) of chlorine into a fjord in Arctic Norway and further out to the Atlantic Ocean.
Roger Pedersen, a spokesman for the salmon farming company Grieg Seafood, which also has farms in Campbell River, said the leak happened at one of its slaughterhouses in the town of Alta and the fish were in a waiting cage nearby.
“Grieg Seafood is working to clean up the pens. The harvesting plant’s silage system and silage boats will take care of the dead fish, which is monitored continuously. It is expected that the clean-up will take a few days,” Grieg Seafood said in a press release posted on its website.
“The company cooperates fully with all authorities, and awaits their investigation into the course of events that led to the leak.”
Grieg Seafood also said that they do not yet have a complete overview of how the leak has affected the environment in the fjord.
“This is very sad. Our focus is now first and foremost on cleaning up. We will get all facts about this incident on the table, to ensure that it will not happen again,” said Stine Torheim, manager of the harvesting plant, said in the release.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, police in northern Norway said “significant quantities of salmon are dead” and that the leaked liquid had flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.
The chlorine is used to disinfect the water coming out of the slaughterhouse.
CHEK News
The Associated Press
