Multi X mortality event revised downward by 50,000 fish

Puerto Montt, Chile-based salmon farmer Multi X, which reported the death of 300,000 fish at one of its farms on 22 May, has revised the number downward to 250,000 fish totaling 1,075 metric tons (MT), Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service, Sernapesca, reported.

The mortality was associated with a decrease in dissolved oxygen content affecting Atlantic salmon at the farmer’s San Luis center in the concession group ACS 1, located in the Reloncaví Estuary in the Los Lagos region. The extraction of all mortality was completed on 22 May and subsequently sent to the Fiordo Austral Holding’s Salmonoil and Los Glaciares reduction plants in Puerto Montt.

Sernapesca said it has continued to monitor the area, disclosing that three centers located in ACS 2, also in the Reloncaví Estuary, reported lower mortality from the same cause, “but these events are of less relevance and are being handled quickly by the affected company, which activated its contingency action plan in a situation that was verified in the field by Sernapesca,” the fishing authority said.

“At Sernapesca, we are working with the members of the Inter-institutional Committee for Environmental Contingencies of the Los Lagos region, in which the Seremi [local government representative] of Economy, the Seremi of the Environment, the Seremi of Health, the Superintendence of the Environment, the Fishing Development Institute, the Navy and [the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture] Subpesca will jointly evaluate the actions around the contingency,” Sernapesca Los Lagos Acting Regional Director Branny Montecinos said. “For our part, we will maintain the monitoring of all the farming centers that are in the area, supervising each one of the processes, from the management of mortality until its final disposal.”

Multi X is operated by Salmones Multiexport, which in turn is owned by the company, Multiexport Foods. The parent company recently closed a deal with agriculture giant Cargill for the latter to purchase 24.5 percent of the salmon company. Under the terms of the USD 300 million (EUR 276 million) deal, Multiexport Foods will maintain 51 percent control of Salmones Multiexport, while Mitsui, a shareholder of the subsidiary since 2015, increased its shareholding in Multi X by 1.13 percent to also reach 24.5 percent ownership.  

Photo courtesy of Multi X