Major outbreak of infection in Murmansk wild salmon
Extensive fish farming operated by company Russkoye More might have put the entire wild salmon stocks of the Kola Peninsula in jeopardy.
Fishermen in several of the biggest salmon rivers in the Kola Peninsula now report major discoveries of salmon infected by lethal fungal infection Saprolegnia.
According to local experts, the outbreak of the infection now poses a serious threat to the whole regional salmon stocks. “The proportions of this outbreak can only be called an ecological catoastophe”, a news report from the Murmansk-based Arctic TV says.
News provider Bloger51 have on several occasions reported about unsatisfactory conditions at the facilities operated by Russkoye More. The company, which over the last years has massively developed fish farming in regional fjords, among them the Pechenga Bay near the border to Norway, has far too much fish in their cages, the website reports.
Lately, the company has sold salmon without heads in a bid to conceal the disease, media reports say.
In early summer, a major number of fish escaped from a facility operated by the company. The infection could now pose a serious threat also to salmon in neighboring Norway.
Meanwhile, a representative of Russkoye More rebuffs all allegations against the company. “With full certainty, I can say that we have never registered a single case of this kind of infection in our facilities”, spokesperson Ilya Bereznyuk underlines to newspaper Gazeta.ru.
