New conclusive study: Fish farm sea lice kills wild salmon fry

Study says up to 95 percent of wild juvenile salmon that migrate past B.C. fish farms die as a result of sea lice infestation.

10/03/06

British Columbia, Canada

In a damning report against fish farms and the damage they cause wild fish, a team of Canadian scientists has found the most direct evidence yet that salmon fry pick up fatal infections of sea lice while swimming past salmon farms, according to a new Associated Press report.

"Before we knew there were potential problems," said Martin Krkosek, a doctoral student at the University of Alberta who was lead author of the study released Monday by the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Now it is very clear we have severe problems here." the AP reports.

"What we're seeing is infection rates of sea lice vary year by year, and populations of pink salmon show fluctuations year by year," he said. "It's a complex issue. We need to do more research on it."

The Associated Press reports that Alexandra Morton, a biologist from Broughton Archipelago who took part in the study and is founder of the Raincoast Research Society, said she started looking into the issue in 2001 when a fisherman brought her a wild salmon covered with sea lice and asked her whether salmon farms were the reason.

"Every time one of us publishes on this issue, the Canadian government finds a little loophole and runs with it," she said. "First they said maybe it's not coming from the farms. When we nailed that one down, they said maybe they don't kill the fish. When we nailed that one down they said maybe they don't kill to affect the population" the AP reports.

"This nails that final loophole down."