MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Infectious anemia extends among Chilean salmon farms

Marine Harvest, the world's leading farmed fish producer, continues to be hit hard by the so-called “biological situation” in Chile. On Monday, shares in Marine Harvest fell by some 4.6% after the Norwegian-owned company issued a press statement admitting it did not reach its production forecasts in Chile

The company harvested some 5,000-6,000 tons of salmon less than expected between October and December of last year, due primarily to problems with Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), a highly contagious virus that can be lethal to fish but does not affect humans. "Since the third quarter reporting date, the negative biological situation in Chile has escalated further. ISA has continued to spread and several additional active sites in Chile are closely monitored for ISA," the company said in a press release. Marine Harvest isn't expected to publish a full fourth quarter earnings report until next month. The presence of ISA in Chilean waters was first noted last July. Since then, the Chilean government's National Fishing Service (SERNAPESCA) has little by little expanded its official list of outbreak sites. That list now includes 11 salmon farms all located around the island of Chiloé in Chile's Region X. Nine of the infected farms belong to industry leader Marine Harvest. SERNAPESCA, furthermore, lists 16 sites as "suspicious," farms in other words where analysts have noted ISA symptoms. That list includes one fish farm in Renconclavi Sound, near Puerto Montt, and one in Region XI, suggesting that the disease is beginning to expand beyond the confines of the immediate Chiloé vicinity. Environmental critics of Chile's 2.4 billion US dollars farmed salmon industry claim the industry's high concentration of fish farms – particularly in Region X – have contributed to the ISA outbreak. The saturated waters immediately off the coast of Chiloé, where the disease has hit hardest, account for 46% of the country's entire farmed salmon production. "Although there's no clear idea of how this outbreak began, it is clear that certain farming practices used here in Chile are important factors in determining the rapid advance of the disease," the Santiago-based environmental policy group Fundación Terram noted in report published last week. The Santiago Times