An inspection conducted by the Environment Agency of Iceland found no trace of the 53,000 salmon that died at a fish farming facility in mid-February, RÚV reports. The inspection, which was undertaken to confirm that the incident hadn’t polluted the environment around the farming facility, took place along the shores of Tálknafjörður in the Westfjords, where the Arnalax fish farm has its marine pens.
The fish—weighing approximately 160 tons total—were suspected to have died from shock while being transferred from a damaged marine into a new one via well-boat. This incident was reported by the Arnarlax last week, but the company drew criticism for failing to report it directly to the Environment Agency, which is responsible for monitoring pollution created by aquaculture companies. For its part, Arnalax says that it didn’t report the event because it wasn’t the result of an accident.
During the environmental inspection, the agent also investigated whether or not there was a particularly large number of birds in the area that could have consumed the remains of the fish. However, no unusual bird life was found either. As such, the Environment Agency says that if there are still any dead fish in the area around the marine pens, it’s a very small number. The agency is still in the process of corroborating the number of dead fish, which it will do by comparing the records from Arnarlax’s internal investigation with those of the entity that was contracted to dispose of the waste.
