Study finds increasing frequency and scale of mass mortality events among farmed salmon since 2012 in Norway, Canada, the UK, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand

The frequency and scale of mass mortality events—events where large numbers of organisms die in short periods of time—among farmed salmon have increased since 2012, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.Gerald Singh and colleagues analyzed salmon mortality data from Norway, Canada, the UK, Chile, Australia, New Zealand—countries that produced over 92% of the world's farmed salmon in 2021—between 2012 and 2022.They identified 865 million instances of salmon mortality during this period and found that both the frequency of the top 10% highest mortality events and the maximum number of fish killed in mass mortality events within Norway, Canada, and the UK increased throughout the decade.The authors estimate that the potential maximum losses for a single mass mortality event are 5.14 million fish in Norway, 5.05 million in Canada, and over 1 million in the UK. They estimate that the potential maximum annual losses from mass mortality events are 8.19 million fish in ...