23 Million Farmed Chilean Salmon Dead From Runoff, Algae Bloom, El Nino Temps - $800 Million Loss

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 is seen soaring to $800 million, industry and government sources told Reuters. There are so many dead fish, they could easily fill 14 olympic-size 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 fueled 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 in estuaries. "Temperatures are 2 to 4 degrees (Celsius) above average for this time of the year, there's a lot of sunlight, a lack of rain and very mild winds, all of which are conditions for the micro algae to appear," said Burgos.

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The 100,000 tonnes in lost production, which includes Atlantic salmon, Coho and trout, is equivalent to some $800 million in exports, he added. Chile, the second largest salmon producer after Norway, last year exported $4.5 billion of farmed salmon, on 800,000 tonnes of shipments. Additionally, the situation will likely lead to job losses in the sector, according to industry group SalmonChile.

Cutting their losses, producers convert those fish that can be saved into fishmeal, while the fish killed by the algal bloom are not destined for human consumption, the group added. The latest blow to the local industry comes as Chile's salmon farmers are using record levels of antibiotics to treat a virulent and pervasive bacteria, driving away some U.S. retailers.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-salmon-idUSKCN0WC0A2