Arctic Fish, Anarlax confronted with unprecedented sea lice infestation in Icelands' Westfjords

Quickly escalating sea lice levels at Arctic Fish’s Tálknafjörður, Iceland-based salmon farm have forced the company to harvest fish at the location. 

In a Facebook post, the company – which was purchased by Mowi via a share-purchase agreement in 2022 – said the rapidly worsening situation at the farm forced it to harvest fish.

“The number of sea lice has risen quickly to a high level, which has resulted in fish being injured,” Arctic Fish said in a release. “In response to this, the company has decided to take a large part of the fish out.”

Arctic Fish reported on 13 October it was performing sea lice treatments at its Tálknafjörður farm, and later on 25 October, it said it was treating lice at its Arnarfjörður farm as well. Arctic Fish and fellow salmon farming company Arnarlax both reported problems with sea lice in the Westfjords region. 

Arctic Fish’s announcement came one day after Icelandic newspaper Heimildin published videos taken by Veiga Grétarsdóttir – described as a kayaker and conservationist – showing dozens of heavily injured salmon in net-pens operated by Arctic Fish. In the video, dead fish and fish with open sores on the top of their heads are shown in the net pen. 

Karl Steinar Óskarsson, the head of the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST), told the newspaper he had never seen a sea lice infestation like it in his 30-year career. 

“That is why they are all being disposed of,” he said.

MAST reported on 13 October that the sea lice situation in the southern part of Vestfjörður – the peninsula on which Arctic Fish’s Tálknafjörður farm is located – was “unusually bad” in recent weeks. Óskarsson said at least one million salmon have since died and been discarded due to damage from sea lice. 

Worsening the situation, MAST said the sea lice outbreak coincided with an outbreak of environmental bacteria, which infected wounds on the salmon caused by sea lice and mulitiplied the damage.

In response, MAST has directed companies to acquire lice treatments from abroad “as soon as possible” allowing them to treat salmon against lice without the use of drugs. However, MAST said the demand for the ships has been high, complicating efforts to secure a mobile delicing unit. Eventually, Arnarlax was able to secure the Norwegian delicing vessel Ronja Strand, which began treating fish on 27 October and was expected to continue treatments for a week.

"We have had calm autumn weather condition recently and results is good so far by using this well known and proven method to get control of the lice situation and ensure good fish welfare," Arnarlax said in a statement. "All treatments done are approved by the fish disease committee, and performed according to that. In addition to delicing, Arnarlax has decided to take out some fish earlier than planned in order to ensure a good biological status on the fish heading into the winter period."

Arnarlax said it will provide more information on the impact of the event during its Q3 2023 presentation on 9 November, 2023. 

Arctic Fish said it is working as quickly as it can to slaughter the fish affected by the sea lice outbreak. It did not say whether it had hired a delicing vessel, and did not provide an estimate of many salmon have been harvested as a result of the outbreak.

“It will take a few more days to get this fish out,” the company said. “We take this situation very seriously, as fish welfare is a priority for us. There are various reasons why this situation has arisen, and it its necessary to carefully consider what can be done.”

Arctic Fish said it will use the harvested fish as a feed input and for other products other than for human consumption. 

MAST said it will push for a lice treatment vessel to be present in Vestfjörður from May to October to prevent future outbreaks.  

Photo courtesy of Arctic Fish