Relationship of farm salmon, sea lice, and wild salmon populations.

ABSTRACT: Increased farm salmon production has heightened concerns about the association between disease on farm and wild fish. The controversy is particularly evident in the Broughton Archipelago of Western Canada, where a high prevalence of sea lice (ectoparasitic copepods) was first reported on juvenile wild pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in 2001. Exposure to sea lice from farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was thought to be the cause of the 97% population decline before these fish returned to spawn in 2002, although no diagnostic investigation was done to rule out other causes of mortality. To address the concern that sea lice from fish farms would cause population extinction of wild salmon, we analyzed 10-20 y of fish farm data and 60 y of pink salmon data. We show that the number of pi

SUBMITTER: Marty GD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3012511 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature