Sea Lice and Fish Farms

[terrin]

Maybe and just maybe if the pacific region had more money dfo could do a better job and hatcheries could go back to producing and fish will be everywhere. You can't deny that smolt production is down in every hatchery and that is because of money.

Hatchery's can supplement available quota for various fisheries but they don't really help rebuilding a healthy run like making sure the native salmon are able to spawn in the wild would.

 

[fogged in]

If I have read it right, correct me if I'm wrong but farms in areas of high lice are asked to pack up and leave the area till counts are reduced. When fishing esperenza inlet, tahsis. The farms where empty for 2-3 years when asking the locals as to why? High lice counts.

Slice is used to control Sea Lice in Fish Farms
No one debates the fact that Fish Farm Sea lice ARE A THREAT TO WILD SALMON

See story from Globe and Mail
Concerns raised over use of toxic pesticides to fight sea lice
A drug long used by the fish farming industry to control sea lice infestations has become increasingly ineffective on the East Coast and is under scrutiny on the West Coast, according to federal government documents obtained under Access to Information.
Slice, which is administered to farmed salmon in their feed, is the only fully registered sea lice treatment in Canada. But the documents show its declining efficacy has forced the industry to seek alternatives – raising concerns that toxic pesticides are being released into the ocean under emergency authorizations.

 

[bones]

So if sea lice is a problem how is it linked to fish farms? I cannot find an answer and the original post is about Norway which is in a different ocean halfway across the world.
Could someone explain how you link a farm to this?

 

[agentaqua]

AQUACULTURE ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS
Aquacult Environ Interact Vol. 8: 597– 610, 2016
doi: 10.3354/aei00201
Published October 27 © The authors 2016. Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are unrestricted. Authors and original publication must be credited.
Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.com

FEATURE ARTICLE
Aquaculture and environmental drivers of salmon lice infestation and body condition in sea trout
Samuel Shephard1, Craig MacIntyre2, Patrick Gargan1,
*1Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, CityWest Business Campus, Dublin 24 Y265, Ir
*Corresponding author: paddy.gargan@fisheriesireland.ie

ABSTRACT:
Infestation of sea trout Salmo trutta L. by salmon lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis is associated with increased mortality risk and possible sub-lethal effects. Separating anthropogenic causes of infestation from background ecological variability has proved difficult. A unique 25 yr dataset was collated comprising lice counts from > 20 000 sea trout sampled from 94 separate river and lake systems in Ireland and Scotland at varying distances from marine salmon farms. Statistical models were developed to explore the potential effects of distance to a salmon farm, rainfall and ambient temperature on sea trout lice infestation and body condition (weight at length). These models indicated that sea trout captured closer to salmon farms had significantly higher levels of lice infestation, and that this effect was exacerbated in warmer years. Sea trout sampled closer to salmon farms also had significantly reduced weight at length (impaired condition), with the strongest impact in dry years. The study dataset covers a broad geographic area over multiple years, and accounts for variability in temperature and rainfall. Our results imply a rather general impact of salmon farming on lice infestation and body condition of sea trout. This finding has implications for current lice control management strategies, coastal zone planning, recovery of sea trout stocks in aquaculture areas and the scale of aquaculture-free zones.

http://www.int-res.com/articles/aei2016/8/q008p597.pdf

 

[SpringFever552]

http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/industry-news/marine-harvest-well-boat-order

 

[agentaqua]

http://aquaculturenorthamerica.com/showcase/new-farmed-fish-harvest-vessel/

 

[SpringFever552]

AA
did you read the link I posted?..
It's not just about a new ship in their fleet

This thread is about sealice around farms and on farmed fish..
This new boat will have the ability to carry a "fresh water" bath so to speak to "delice" their product and place them back into ocean

 

[agentaqua]

AA did you read the link I posted?..It's not just about a new ship in their fleet This thread is about sealice around farms and on farmed fish.. This new boat will have the ability to carry a "fresh water" bath so to speak to "delice" their product and place them back into ocean

I skimmed it - thanks for the link, SF. They previously chartered 1 such well boat/fish carrier - called the "Roy Kristian" (was the "Rune Viking" before being renamed): http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...msi:316008770/imo:9237591/vessel:ROY_KRISTIAN

they use H2O2 ... a couple tanks of peroxide makes a fish carrier a well boat

Guess they don't need to charter anymore...maybe..unless it is to move smolts from the hatchery at Sayward to the pens in Klemtu..

Just also wanted to point-out that all these new fleet acquisitions means expansion has been planned (and promised) for some time. Nobody goes out and spends some $Millions on boats - "just in case" you need them. You also have to get into a line-up to get your boat designed and build. Can take a couple years or so.

They were obviously promised the expansion was going to happen LONG before the regulators had any assessments and consultation with anyone else - if they even did...

That was the point I was trying to make.

 

[SpringFever552]

I will agree to disagree with you regarding capital investments for large
company's.
not planning months in advance and more like yrs has IMO always been in their business plans.

A company evolving, changing with the times on the use of medication to combat any lice issue that may or may not come up..
also might help with (yes only some of) the public perception on use of said antibiotics...
You see it on tv in every A&W burger commercial..

 

[agentaqua]

I will agree to disagree with you regarding capital investments for large
company's. not planning months in advance and more like yrs has IMO always been in their business plans. A company evolving, changing with the times on the use of medication to combat any lice issue that may or may not come up..
also might help with (yes only some of) the public perception on use of said antibiotics...
You see it on tv in every A&W burger commercial..

Irrespective of what a company does or does not plan - there is a line-up for most reputable shipbuilders - often many, many months - assuming you already have a off-the-shelf design. So - to get a new boat takes many months of planning....

This expansion was promised behind closed doors - as a sure thing - many, many months ago..

 

[SpringFever552]

[QUOTE="agentaqua, post: 809989, member: 470"
This expansion was promised behind closed doors - as a sure thing - many, many months ago..[/QUOTE]


The link I shared has info in regards to how one company looks to deal with the original posts title.
How you get to "expansion" from it is beyond me.
Because the ship building contract has up to 3 total ships?

Maybe the company is looking at not renewing contract's already in place with private companies running ships now and replace with their own ships and employees.

I hope this ship works for what they are being designed to do as these farms are not going anywhere fast.

 

[agentaqua]

How you get to "expansion" from it is beyond me.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/l...eds-to-stop-expansion-of-fish-farms-1.2310708

I hope this ship works for what they are being designed to do as these farms are not going anywhere fast.

Agreed! SF

 

[SpringFever552]

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/l...eds-to-stop-expansion-of-fish-farms-1.2310708

Agreed! SF

Nope.. that wasn't on the link I posted to this thread sorry...start another thread there AA

 

[agentaqua]

Temporal variation in sea trout Salmo trutta life history traits in the Erriff River, western Ireland
P. G. Gargan1,*, F. L. Kelly1, S. Shephard1, K. F. Whelan2
1Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin, D24 Y265, Ireland
2School of Biology & Environment Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
*Corresponding author: paddy.gargan@fisheriesireland.ie
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/aei/v8/p675-689/

ABSTRACT: The demographic and life history characteristics of sea trout Salmo trutta L. populations can be changed by a range of pressures in both freshwater and marine environments. Few long-term monitoring programmes are in place to assess temporal change in population dynamics. We analysed a 20 yr time series (1985-2004) using 15 sea trout population response variables in the Erriff River, western Ireland. Over this period, when time was considered as a categorical variable comprising 4 sequential periods of 5 yr, important life history changes were observed. The most dramatic of these changes corresponded with the period immediately after the commencement of salmon farming in the local estuary, with significant decreases in the number and length of sea trout kelts, the estimated number of eggs deposited, the sea trout rod catch, the proportion of older (1+ and 2+ sea age) fish and the frequency of repeat spawners. We found a significant positive relationship between the number of salmon lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis in the local salmon farm and the number of lice found on sea trout collected contemporaneously in local rivers. Results of this long-term monitoring programme demonstrate that significant changes in sea trout population structure with respect to quantitative life history traits can occur over a relatively short time period and suggest that the introduction of salmon farming into the local estuary most likely contributed to the observed changes in sea trout population dynamics.

 

[bones]

Sea lice outbreak shows no links to salmon farming in B.C.: report

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-...hows-no-links-to-salmon-farming-in-b-c-report


It appears a study from Morton and FN looking for facts was ignored

 

[agentaqua]

Sea lice outbreak shows no links to salmon farming in B.C.: report

"according to a report from the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association", Bones. That report was not peer-reviewed - which is a subtle but important distinction when comparing with the Gargan Irish trout study above. see: http://www.marineharvest.ca/globala...-lice-study--goletas-channel-2016---final.pdf

Quote from the Goletas study: "...no scientific consensus regarding these [sea lice] interactions has been achieved as a result of the complex nature of these relationships."

If you look at the data/results in Table 2 on page 14 - you can see elevated levels of Leps in Zones 1, 5, and 6 - where the open net-cage aquaculture farm sites are located: Bell Isl, Duncan, Shelter Bay, Robertson and Raynor, etc. Too bad they neglected to give it as sampling sites - esp. those near the farms. Maybe that's why - the results might be too telling. Caligus is elevated in Zone 1.

Super high prevalences of early life history stages of both Leps and Caligus on coho and sockeye smolts in Table 9, page 21. That means they caught those lice as copepidites within a day or 2 of where they were found. Again - too bad they summarized those data - rather than giving it as a site-by-site result. Maybe they did that purposely, as well.

Also interesting that the company that did the sea lice study is also the same company that the owner is the husband of the Senior Aquaculture Management Coordinator for DFO.

Also - The Tlatlasikwala have an economic agreement with Marine Harvest.

 

[bones]

So when the sea shepherd society make claims about fish farms it's "true" but when the BC salmon farmers association make claims about the industry it needs to be peer reviewed and then open to economics, etc? Doesn't seem fair play.

 

[agentaqua]

I have never supported the views nor tactics of the Watson group, Bones. I read the literature and search for answers there.

 

[bones]

Fair enough, but you are anti fish farm correct?

 

[agentaqua]

nope. Anti open net-cage technology.