Talknafjordur

An unprecedented outbreak of sea lice in Tálknafjörður has led to the loss, or the need to dispose of, at least one million salmon. “Nobody has seen anything like this before. There is a Norwegian veterinarian who has been working in Iceland because of this and he has never seen anything like this in his 30-year career,” Karl Steinar observed.

Samples taken from a white-tailed eagle found dead on a skerry near Barðaströnd in the Westfjords in mid-September tested positive for a severe bird flu virus of the strain HPAI H4N5. An eider duck that was found dead in Ólafsfjörður, West Iceland recently was infected with the same strain of bird flu virus. The strain has not been detected in Iceland before and is not common.

Escapted farmed salmon threatens wild salmon stocks across Northwest Iceland, where it has entered rivers.

In a recent report from the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST), 16 salmon caught in the Mjólká river in the Westfjords were confirmed to originate from farms. Signs indicate that the salmon originate from open sea farms by Haganes, where a hole in the pen caused part of the stock to escape in August.

2020 was the second most successful year on record for Iceland’s sea eagles. Currently there are 85 breeding pairs—mostly around the Breiðafjörður area. This year, there have been 51 eaglets from 60 nests.

“I wouldn’t have been on the road if there had been an avalanche warning in effect,” says a woman who fell victim to an avalanche along Flateyrarvegur in the Westfjords on Friday. The avalanche-prone road is not currently monitored, but Vegagerðin is now looking at improvements.

Fifty-three thousand salmon died while being transferred out of a damaged marine pen at a fish farming facility in the West Fjords.

A large iceberg was spotted approximately 93 km (57 miles) to the west of Látrabjarg, which is located in the north-west of Iceland.