by WCWC Media

Thursday October 05, 2006 at 01:21 PM

Ground-breaking scientific report points to urgent need to get salmon farms out of the ocean before springtime salmon migration

Vancouver, BC. – The Wilderness Committee is urging Fisheries and Oceans Canada (FOC - formerly the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO) to close open-net cage salmon farms in light of a rigorous new scientific study that confirms that sea lice from salmon farms on BC’s coast killed up to 95% of wild salmon during the springtime migration.

The solid scientific study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, had researchers counting sea lice on more than 14,000 juvenile wild salmon that migrated past several salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago and doing further mortality experiments on more than 3,000 juveniles. The study found that as the sea lice population from salmon farms grew over the springtime, more salmon were killed, from mortality rates of 9% in early spring to 95% in late spring.

“This is a definitive study that clearly demonstrates once and for all that sea lice from open-net cage salmon farms on BC’s coast are killing our wild salmon”, said Geoff Senichenko, Wilderness Committee Director of Research and Mapping. “Past studies have linked salmon farms to sea lice epidemics in wild salmon, but this recent study not only strongly confirms the link, but goes on to show how lethal the high levels of salmon farm originating sea lice are to juvenile wild salmon.”

This latest study caps off a growing mountain of scientific evidence showing the detrimental effects of open-net cage salmon farms on BC’s wild salmon. FOC cannot use the excuse that it needs more science any longer. “It is now time for FOC to act and follow its mandate to protect BC’s wild salmon, by ordering these toxic, parasite-filled farmed salmon slums out of our ocean now,” said Senichenko.

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For more information contact:

Geoff Senichenko, BSc Ecology, Director of Research and Mapping 604-683-8220