New Large-Scale Sea Lice Infestations In BC Salmon Farms; Treatments No Longer Effective

[hatrack]

Major sea lice epidemics have erupted on Atlantic salmon fish farms on Vancouver Island’s west coast over the last three months, according to industry, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and independent reports. The outbreaks, which threaten the health of young wild salmon, have brought renewed calls for stricter regulations and the removal of open-net pens from the ocean.

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As wild salmon migrate past fish farms between the months of March and June, the industry is supposed to keep parasite levels below three “motile” lice per fish, a level set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and industry. (Motile refers to sea lice capable of moving from the salmon.) But managing such epidemics continues to be a troublesome and expensive battle for the global industry and its regulators.

At three Cermaq farms, sea lice loads on farmed fish this spring have exceeded regulations, resulting in high sea lice rates for young wild salmon in Clayoquot Sound, said Bonny Glambeck, director of the conservation group Clayoquot Action. “At one point during the out-migration, sampling of smolts at the Cedar Coast Field Station found 100 per cent of the juveniles were infected with sea lice,” Glambeck said.

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The situation in Clayoquot Sound got so desperate last year that Cermaq, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation headquartered in Oslo, Norway, applied to Health Canada for an emergency permit to use a new treatment called Lufenuron. The drug is commonly used to control fleas in pet dogs and cats. But even Norway, home to the biggest salmon farming industry and annual sea lice plagues, hasn’t approved the chemical. Morton said that Norwegian researchers told her there are concerns that the chemical makes fish unsafe for human consumption. The Health Canada permit allowing Cermaq to use Lufenuron says it has to wait 350 days after the last use before harvesting the fish.

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https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/06/11/Sea-Lice-Plagues-Return/

[pscot]

1. That must be why

Atlantic salmon was on sale at Fred Meyer