On Monday, Finnmark police responded to reports of an “acute contamination” of 15,000 litres of chlorine in the sea at a salmon facility in Alta.
Kristina Furnes, communications manager at Grieg Seafood, confirmed that the spill happened at their facility in Simanes, Alta, where chlorine has leaked into the sea.
“Chlorine is normally used to disinfect the harvest water. At present, we assume that 96,000 individuals of salmon have unfortunately died,” she said.
“We are working to get an overview of what has happened and the consequences, and will come back when we know more. Relevant authorities have been notified,” she added.
According to local reports, chlorine leaked from a tank and into the waiting cage plant, which is next door to the facility where the company has fish.
With a salmon price of just over NOK 60 (€5.70/$6.70) per kg, the salmon that is now dead would have had a harvest value of almost NOK 30 million (€2.9 million/$3.4 million).
Some of this may be covered by Grieg’s insurance.
Grieg Seafood told IntraFish that the company will return to the financial consequences of the incident later.