Salmon Farms Move to Protect Wild Fish From Sea Lice

B.C.'s largest aquaculture company has announced that it will coordinate its operations in the Broughton Archipelago to create migratory corridors during the spring out-migration of wild juvenile fish to protect them against possible sea lice infestations arising from its salmon farms.

Marine Harvest said in a release that under its Coordinated Area Management Plan (CAMP), the company will create migratory corridors in the Broughton Archipelago during the outmigration season from March 1st to June 30th each year.

T. Buck Suzuki executive-director David Lane said in an interview that the plan is a beneficial interim measure that will help wild juvenile salmon, "but we still believe in the long term we need to move from open nets to close containment technology."

Lane said it doesn't solve the bigger picture of sea lice from farms infecting wild salmon. "There will still be sea lice out there and some impact on wild salmon. We think it's beneficial, but the jury is out as to how effective it will be."

“Earlier this year, in a major blow to BC’s salmon farming industry, a government-funded research group said it accepts a scientific study that warned of mass extinctions of wild pink salmon on the central coast due to salmon farming. In an uncirculated communiqué obtained by The Vancouver Sun, the Pacific Salmon Forum acknowledged that sea lice infestations contributed to plummeting pink salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago from 2001-2005, as noted in an article in Science. The article warned that wild pink salmon could be extinct within four years on the BC central coast due to sea lice infestations arising from salmon farms.”

Read the full article in The Vancouver Sun.