150,000 Trout Killed At Fish Farm In Storms Off Norway
Pastor Dale Morgan
150,000 Trout Killed At Fish Farm In Storms Off Norway*
Oslo (AFP) Jan 16, 2007
Around 150,000 trout were killed at a fish farm off Norway's west coast
during a fierce storm this weekend and another 150,000 escaped from the
nets, the production manager of the farm said on Tuesday. "Half of the
farm's rainbow trout aged six months and weighing 300 grams sank with
the cages," Nils Arve Eidsheim of the Loennoeykalven fish farm in
Austevoll in southwestern Norway told AFP.
The trout were crushed to death on the seabed when the cages broke loose
during the storm overnight Saturday to Sunday, he said.
"We had to fight all night to save our installations but the waves had
the final say," Eidsheim said.
Another 150,000 trout escaped from the same fish farm, which is owned by
Sjoetroll Havbruk.
"With the help of fishermen equipped with nets, we started to pick up
(some of) the escaped fish. Several hundred a day since Sunday,"
Eidsheim said.
The Loennoeykalven fish farm lost about 300,000 of its 700,000 trout, a
loss estimated at "several million kroner" (one million kroner = 120,000
euros or 156,000 dollars), he said.
High winds lashed Norway on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, moving east
toward Sweden, Denmark and the Baltic states.
Off the Norwegian coast, a Cypriot vessel ran aground in the bad weather
late Friday before breaking in two and sinking, leaking some 370 tonnes
of oil into the water.
Source: Agence France-Presse