The Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper Matt Abbott was featured in the Hakai magazine on April 7, 2017, where he said sea lice outbreaks are common on East Coast salmon farms.
A half-million salmon died in the Bay of Fundy from sea lice outbreak in north Passamaquoddy Bay last summer. More than 240, 000 Salmon died from the infestation and another 284,000 were killed to prevent the parasites from killing the rest of the fish and further spreading. Mortality at these two sites was particularly bad, but the sea lice problem was region wide.
The outbreak was a “catastrophic loss,” said Abbott. “Both sites were wiped out.”
But, Abbott told author Brian Owens, it did not come as a surprise—sea lice outbreaks are common on East Coast salmon farms, and even healthy farms have lice numbers far higher than those on the Pacific Coast. “This was just a slightly more dramatic example of the norm,” he said.
The article goes on to explain that problem exist because parasites that exist in low numbers in the wild spread exceedingly fast within coastal net pens where high volumes of salmon are cramped together. The lack of genetic diversity in combination with the cramped quarters is making it so that these parasites can infect salmon at younger and younger ages, which creates risks to the local wild salmon population.
Details about the event were revealed in a series documents written filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench in New Brunswick as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.
Read the full story here.
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For more information on Matt Abbott’s response to the sea lice outbreak in Passamaquoddy Bay:
- Read Matt Abbott’s March 23, 2017 response: Was last Summer’s sea lice outbreak in Passamaquoddy Bay preventable?
- Watch Matt Abbott’s March 20, 2017 interview with CBC’s Harry Forestall (17:50- 20:30).
For more information on marine conservation, check out these resources:
- Read our full letter addressed to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans report on Fisheries Act,
- Read the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans full report here: Review of changes made in 2012 to the fisheries act: enhancing the protection of fish and fish habitat and the management of Canadian fisheries.
- Read our March 1st story on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans’ recommendations: Recover fish populations and protect fish habitat, recommends Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.