Dissolved Oxygen levels at Williamson and Muchalat North have recovered and returned to normal

During mid-June Williamson Passage and Muchalat North experienced high levels of mortality rate due to increased levels of Dissolved Oxygen. Since then D.O. levels have recovered and returned to normal and our fish are coming back onto feed fairly well at all locations that were affected. The farm teams have done a good job of getting the sites re-sorted after this major incident and it was good to see our higher standard of set-up becoming re-established.

- For insurance and future rearing purposes we will be counting all of the surviving fish at Williamson. The farm team have, with the help of the Royal Chinook, combined the surviving fish into 5 pens. These will now be counted and sorted into final grow-out populations starting in late July/early August (as soon as a vessel is available to do this unplanned work), says Regional Manager Stewart Hawthorn.

- We have also developed a new farm rearing plan for the fish at Concepcion, Atrevida and Williamson. Fish from Concepcion and Atrevida are to be transferred to Williamson to reduce numbers at these locations and to fully utilized the Williamson location, he says.

At Muchalat North and South feeding has really picked up as D.O. levels have improved.

- Mortality remains higher at Muchalat South than ideal – due to maturation – and we are going to assess these stocks to establish the final harvest plan. If there is high maturation then we may need to accelerate harvesting to get these fish out before the fish get down graded to utilities, says Stewart.