200,000 fish lost in farm site explosion

An explosion in the oxygen supply has led to the death of around 200,000 hatchery fish at a farming facility in Norway.

The regional newspaper Bladet Vesterålen reports that Trond Geir Reinsnes, the owner of the Sigerfjord Fisk site, described the incident as a “nightmare”.

The company, which is based in the Sortland region, is Norway’s largest supplier of Arctic char and also farms some trout.

Called “the queen of salmon”, Arctic char has a clean taste, dense consistency and is less oily than other types of salmon.

Reinsnes added: “Mostly these things are a false alarm we get, but I saw that it concerned a cone that adds oxygen to the water. Then I became more worried, a mistake there is almost a disaster.

“Most of the fish were lost due to a lack of oxygen, although the rescue effort managed to save half the fry.”

The paper reports that one of the cones that produce pressurized oxygen had exploded. This meant the fish did not get enough oxygen-rich water.

Trond Geir Reinsnes, owner and CEO, Sigerfjord Fisk

Reinsnes said that losing almost a third of the 650,000 fish at the facility was not a total crisis, saying that the situation would have been worse if there had been fewer hatchlings. They would have been ready for slaughter in two years’ time.

The incident is now being investigated and he told the newspaper that the company would be seeking compensation.

The CEO said that the company now has around 450,000 fish left from that generation which should lead to the production of around 320 tonnes.