Co-Authors of Farmed Salmon Study Discuss Findings

New study found that wild salmon stocks are being devastated by fish farms

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

The Pure Salmon Campaign has hosted a telephone press conference with two authors of a new study published this week in the National Academy of Sciences' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study documents the devastating effect large-scale salmon farm operations have upon wild salmon, confirming that sea lice from salmon farms kill up to 95 percent of wild juvenile salmon.

Listen to the Briefing:

• Listen to the briefing [mp3, 2.9megs]

Speakers:

• Dr. John Volpe, Professor, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, study co-author
• Alexandra Morton, Raincoast Research Society, study co-author
• Andrea Kavanagh, Director of the Pure Salmon Campaign will moderate the call.

For More Information

• Read our statement on the study
• Dr. John Volpe puts sea lice in human perspective ("...it would be the same as you having a fifty-pound lice chewing through your back." See this and other sea lice video clips.

Background

• Sea lice are especially virulent parasites that chew on salmon, creating open lesions that weaken their ability to maintain a healthy salt-to-water balance. They spread easily to migrating juvenile wild salmon.
• A previous study found that sea lice concentrations at one Canadian salmon farm were 30,000 times higher than normal. Lice are dispersed around a farm at concentrations 73 times higher than normally occurring levels. (David Suzuki Foundation, "Diseases associated with salmon farms: Furunculosis").
• Sea lice infestations have been reported by operators in Canada, Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.
• Read a factsheet on Sea Lice and Farmed Salmon Mortality [PDF]