Industry, government response to HABs employs space-age tech and old-fashioned vigilance
Norway’s salmon industry hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in May, when large blooms of the common alga Chrysochromulina leadbeateri killed around 8 million fish in ocean net pens. This figure continues to rise, although mortalities have slowed to a trickle, as the algae run out of available nutrients and die off.
The same species of algae was linked to salmon deaths in Norway in 1991 and again in 2008.
Algal blooms are caused by phytoplankton, free-floating microscopic algae found in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. They form the base of the aquatic food chain and are an essential nutrient for filter feeding bivalve shellfish and for the larvae of commercially important crustaceans and finfish…
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