Tag Archives: Gov of Canada

Fish farms underreport sea lice when not being audited, study says

“Our results suggest that sea-louse counts reported by the salmon farming industry are lower than the true abundance of parasites on their fish. When the federal government audited a sea-louse count, the industry’s mean counts for that month increased by a factor of 1.18 for L. salmonis and by 1.95 for C. clemensi.” – Sean Godwin et al, Bias in self-reported parasite data from the salmon farming industry.

Dr Sean Godwin is the lead author of eight of the fifteen scientific papers listed on his website. The bulk of these explore interactions between wild and farmed salmon. One of the most troubling, published in the journal Ecological Application, is a survey that showed fish farms underreport sea lice when they are not audited by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

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Sea lice numbers plummeted 95% in Discovery Islands, scientist says

Now that most of the fish farms in the Discovery Islands have closed down, sea lice numbers may have plummeted as much as 95%.

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BC could use Federal funding to end the war in the woods

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coalition of conservationists is urging the B.C. government to use federal funds to end the province’s new war in the woods on Vancouver Island, protect old-growth forest and establish targets for endangered ecosystems.

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Salmon farms infecting wild Chinook salmon, study suggests

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The transmission of a virus tied to kidney and liver damage in endangered Chinook salmon is being fuelled by the exchange of the disease between open-net pen fish farms and wild stocks in B.C., a new study indicates.

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Three threats to Quadra Island wild salmon

On May 12th,  Eileen Sowerby from the Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society (QISES) gave the Strathcona Regional District Board a presentation about the three threats to Quadra Island’s wild salmon: salmon farms, logging and climate change

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