Company director Alan Savage said results have been confirmed by the Fisheries Health Laboratory after analysis of the dead fish specimens, that it is a bacterial infection from the vibrio species that has caused the problem.

“This is a common bacteria in the marine environment which does not normally cause problems, but it is evident that the deaths were due to bacterial pathogens in the intenstines of the fish,” he said.

“We believe through husbandry routine activities associated with farming practices that the fish may have been under some stress, and because of this, became susceptible to the bacteria.”

“We have been working very closely with the Department of Fisheries and the Department of Agriculture and Food and taken the precaution of sending off further samples of stock for analysis.

“We are hopeful that everything is now okay and we have juvenile yellowtail kingfish ready to go out to sea soon.

“Currently there are about 16,000 yellowtail kingfish out on the aquaculture site in the marine park and we are hopeful that the fish stocks will start growing a lot quicker with the onset of warmer water temperatures.”

Western Kingfish suspended trade in its shares last week after it had notified authorities about 30 per cent of the fish held at its offshore facility had died.

The company has had to revise plans to raise up to $2.9 million through a share purchase plan, with shares sold at 15 cents each.

Western Kingfish said it was implementing action to minimise future losses, emphasising the next cohort of about 50,000 fingerlings had not been impacted.