ALTA, Norway — Grieg Seafood says about 96,000 of its fish died after chlorine leaked into pens at a harvesting plant in northern Norway.
The international seafood company said a statement that nearly 4,000 gallons of chlorine leaked into a fjord in Alta and killed about 474 tons of fish.
The leak did not cause harm to employees or other people, either on land or at sea, according to the company.
Grieg says it doesn’t know for sure how the leak may affect the environment in the area. An independent assessment of the environmental impact is being conducted. That will include collecting samples of the seabed around the harvesting plant.
“Chlorine is rapidly diluted and breaks down quickly in water. According to what we know today, the leak had a short-term, acute impact on organisms that were in the water around the harvesting plant when the incident occurred. The environmental assessment, which is expected to take a few days, will provide a full answer,” wrote the company.
Grieg says it’s working to clean up the pens, while the harvesting plant's silage system and silage boats will take care of the dead fish. The clean-up is expected to take a few days.
Stine Torheim, the manager of the harvesting plant, issued this statement:
“This is very sad. Our focus is now first and foremost on cleaning up. We will get all facts about this incident on the table, to ensure that it will not happen again.”
