FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2007

CONTACT:
Dave Bard
202-486-4426

Statement by Andrea Kavanagh, Director, Pure Salmon Campaign,

On The Potential Outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in Chilean Salmon Farms

Santiago, Chile — The Chilean National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca) recently reported a potential outbreak of the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) disease in Lemuy Island, Central Chiloé, Chile. And today, Sernapesca is expected to provide an update announcing that Marine Harvest is not the only company involved.

"Americans may soon be paying more for their farmed salmon due to a reported outbreak of an infectious disease that could force several Chilean salmon farms to slaughter millions of farmed fish. ISA is a major global threat to open net cage salmon farms with far-reaching economic and environmental consequences.

"Disease has always been the wild card when it comes to fish farming. Current industry practices, such as dumping vast amounts of chemicals into coastal waters, often do little to stop diseases and parasitic infestations.

"This ISA outbreak comes on the heels of the Bush administration's renewed push for its open ocean aquaculture bill in Congress. If the administration's bill does nothing to prevent major environmental threats like this, it will be nothing more than a recipe for disaster.

"The Chilean salmon farming industry is getting pummeled by one crisis after another. The industry needs to adopt urgent measures to protect itself, its workers and the marine environment on which it depends.

"Closed containment technology is an obvious solution to combat infectious diseases, sea lice and other serious environmental problems associated with salmon farming."

Background:

• Chile exported $2.2 billion worth of salmon in 2006. Analysts initially forecast sales growth in 2007 of 20%. But disease, including sea lice and now ISA, threatens to erase all growth. That translates into $440 million in lost revenue.



• Closed containers, including fiberglass, cement tanks, and heavy gage plasticized bags, physically separate fish from the external environment thereby preventing transmission of diseases and parasites. (http://puresalmon.org/pdfs/closed_containment.pdf)



• Pure Salmon believes that closed containment systems may reduce biomass loss. The additional cost of closed containment infrastructure and circulation is estimated at $0.50/kg. For the industry, that's $314 million (based on 2006 export figures of 628 million kg). In other words, the Chilean industry might have sacrificed more than $100 million by using inferior technology.



• Investor John Fredriksen reportedly cited Chile's disease problems as the reason he vetoed Marine Harvest's purchase of AquaChile. Fredriksen owns 28% of Marine Harvest, the world's largest farmed salmon producer. Marine Harvest has already announced it will move early-stage salmon production into closed containment facilities in Chile.

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The Pure Salmon Campaign (www.puresalmon.org) is a global project of the National Environmental Trust. It has partners in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Chile all working to improve the way salmon is produced.