Harmful algal blooms are a natural phenomenon caused by multiple climatic and environmental factors.

The National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Chile (Sernapesca) ratified that the companies Blumar and AquaChile which are in the Salmonid Concessions Association (ACS, also known as "barrio") 22B They have already removed all the fish mortality from the farming centers.

This mortality was generated by an event of harmful algal blooms (HAB, called "algae bloom") alerted last week near the Victoria Island, in the Aysén region.

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From Sernapesca they emphasized that in total five centres activated plans by FAN, but that only three farming centers recorded mass mortality. The others two centres correspond to the companies MultiX and Mowi, that are in the "barrios" 22C and 23C.

Sernapesca emphasized that NAFs are a natural phenomenon caused by multiple climatic and environmental factors, generating a numerical increase of one or more species of microalgae in the water. Microalgae Pseudochatonella spp., detected in this contingency, caused the mortality of 4,994.32 tonnes of salmon.

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"Of the five centers affected by the FAN event, one is still carrying out harvest maneuvers to complete its production cycle and the remaining four are found without fish, concluding the early harvest. This is a measure that aims to prevent a new mass mortality in the event that concentrations of Pseudochattonella spp. remain above harmful levels or increase. For our part, We'll keep an eye out. in the surrounding farming centers and throughout the region," said the regional director(s) of Sernapesca Aysén, Jorge Padilla.

In addition, Padilla commented that, along with other public institutions, such as the Navy, the Undersecretary for Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subsecretariat) and the Aysén Provincial Delegationhave been monitoring on the ground the logistics of landing of the mortality of fish that have as destination reducing plants from the regions of Aysén and Los Lagos.

Finally, the authority recalled that the microalga Pseudochattonella spp. does not affect other fish or shellfish for human consumption.

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*Photo credits: courtesy of Sernapesca.