Santiago, Chile—Chile's environmental protection service said Friday it had slapped a record $6.6 million fine on a Norwegian salmon producer for the 2018 escape of 690,000 antibiotic-fed fish.
The fine, handed to salmon farming company Mowi, formerly known as Marina Harvest, was the largest ever for an environmental offense in the South American country.
The charge of 5.3 billion pesos ($6.6 million) was in response to the "irreparable environmental damage produced by the mass escape of salmon" from the Punta Redonda farm in Chile's Los Lagos region, around 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of the capital Santiago.
The service also handed the company an additional 2.7 million peso fine "for not having adequate facilities to dispose of dead fish."
The escape poses an environmental risk because the fish are an invasive and predatory species.