Algae bloom kills 11,600 tonnes of farmed salmon in Norway

Around 11,600 tonnes of farmed salmon have been killed in northern Norway due to an algae bloom and more fish are at risk, the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries announced on Wednesday.

It is estimated that the death of the 11,600 tonnes of farmed salmon in the northern counties of Nordland and Troms led to a loss of 720 million kroner (82.4 million U. S. dollars), the directorate said in a statement.

"We do not yet go out with information about the total number of fish, mainly for two reasons -- all the breeders do not have the capacity and overview to say the numbers and the weight of the fish varies from 700 grams to 5.5 kg," it said.

The algae could stick to the gills of the fish and choke them. Wild salmon can swim away from the algae, but the farmed salmon in the offshore pens are trapped.

The algae bloom in northern Norway is not over and the breeders are on alert, the fisheries directorate warned.

The directorate and the Institute of Marine Research are in dialogue about possibilities to predict algae bloom beyond the areas that have been affected by using of satellite images and extended sampling.