LIce Outbreak in Clayoquot Sound - Billions of Lice

AS if there were not enough evidence that lice breakout in huge numbers in BC - and every place else in the world their are fish farms - now a new outbreak in Clayoquot Sound.
 
 
 
 The last post on this site has a link to 30 BC lice studies, 90 studies by Marine Harvest, and the latest is a list of 800 lice studies around the world: See this abstract: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24042912_The_global_economic_cost_of_sea_lice_to_the_salmonid_farming_industry.

CEO, Helge Aarskog, MH, has stated that lice are their worst problem: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/05/marine-harvest-lice-are-our-worst.html.

Here is a link to the 30 lice studies in BC:  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/02/lice-numbers-dont-match-up-in-bc-and.html. The post includes just 2 from Marine Harvest. And DFO's numbers from 2015 show that Quatsino farmed salmon had 300 - to 800-% more lice over the limit of 3 lice per fish.

Now, Clayoquot Sound. Zero sockeye spawners returned in 2017.  In 2012 there were only 501 chinook in a half dozen rivers. These are extinction numbers. And the sound has 20 fish farms in a body of water that has only one exit, thus the lice, disease and fecal matter simply floats around. And you will recall that Cermaq applied, and actually got, a licence for 2 million litres of hydrogen peroxide, Paramove 50, to try and kill them all.

Here are photos of 2018 fry in Clayoquot: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ps-GumjM4j7RmsYT-kVu1GjJR2ojltqz. Note that this also has a copy of the news release.

Here is text from the Clayoquot Action Group on the number of lice: "Tofino, May 3, 2018—A massive outbreak of salmon lice in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is threatening to wipe out this year’s salmon run. Cermaq’s documentation on salmon lice for April show that the numbers of salmon lice on seven of their fourteen Clayoquot farm sites are up to ten times higher than the threshold which requires treatment. The regulatory threshold is three motile salmon lice per farm fish."

There are 20 fish farms in Clayoquot, which, by the way is a UNESCO Biosphere - why there are fish farms in such special water is a question that has been hanging here for 20 years.

Let me give you a calculation that will make your jaw drop. If there is only one female louse per farmed salmon, and it can produce 1000 lice at a time, here is the number of lice from one farm: 1 farm X 600,000 fish/farm X 1000 lice/female = 600,000,000. Yes, that is 600 million, and Cermaq has problems with 14 farms, (yes, that means 600M X 14 = 8,400 million) and lice counts are up to ten times higher than the threshold that requires action - typically 3 lice per farmed salmon, not 10 times 3 = 30 lice per farmed fish, meaning the number is even higher. And there are 20 farms in total so the number is even higher. 

That is the reality with fish farms, and why CEO Aarskog, has those 90 studies on the go to try and solve this problem.

CAG points out that: "Cermaq recently received a controversial permit to use a new pesticide to control salmon lice in Clayoquot Sound. The treatment—Paramove 50—is known to suppress the immune system of the farm fish and trigger outbreaks of viruses such as Piscine Reovirus (PRV)"

Oh, and in case this is not obvious, Cermaq will be releasing the 2 million litres of lice chemicals into the waters of Clayoquot Sound - little wonder why people have lost faith in DFO/BC. And, as we have noted many times on this site, lice become resistant to the chemicals very quickly, that is why they constantly need new ones. The straight forward answer here is fish farms need to be on land. Why hasn't DFO/BC done this already?

Here is what CAG says about the lice treatment: “This is a band-aid solution for a serious problem that the salmon farming industry is unable to solve. Clearly a new approach is needed, which is why we’re seeing a global shift to land-based salmon farming”, said Ms. Glambeck. “Why are we sacrificing local food security, the wild salmon economy, and the iconic ecosystems of Clayoquot Sound, when the writing is clearly on the wall?”

Why, indeed. Please send a note to John Horgan: premier@gov.bc.ca, and to Dominic LeBlanc: dominic.leblanc@parl.gc.ca. Ask them to put fish farms on land. The answer is so simple, it should have happened decades ago.

You can pass on my list of 232 on-land fish farms systems that I have found: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

Thanks.

One more thing, here is the list of lice numbers per fish at the farms: 


Cermaq Canada’s sea lice counts from the ASC-certified and in assessment Clayoquot Sound farms:

• Ross Pass — 31.88 motile per fish / 14.9 adult female per fish (1 May 2018) HARVESTING
• Dixon Bay — 24.83 motile per fish / 13.07 adult female per fish (28 April 2018)HARVESTING
• Millar Channel — 29.13 motile per fish / 8.07 adult female per fish (29 April 2018)HARVESTING
• Saranac — 18.47 motile per fish / 5 adult female per fish (29 April 2018)
• Mussel Rock — 8.67 motile per fish / 4.53 adult female per fish (28 April 2018)
• Bawden — 18.82 motile per fish / 10.97 adult female per fish (25 April 2018)