I first discovered sea lice from salmon farms are eating young BC wild salmon to death in BC in 2001.  Based on Norwegian research on sea lice, I predicted that 90% of the pink salmon in Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory would die from sea lice in 2002. My prediction was accurate.  In response, DFO sent a research team, many environmental organizations pitched in and by 2007 we got the salmon farmers to get their lice under control and the wild salmon were protected.  We thought we had solved one salmon farm issue. While all the government and environmental organizations left, I kept a team out in the Broughton Archipelago, Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory to count sea lice every spring. Last year we discovered that the salmon farmers had lost control of their lice again after seven years of suppressing lice numbers on farmed salmon with the in-feed drug SLICE.

We were surprised to see that some farms don’t seem to be following their license conditions, they also were not coordinating their treatments with other farms so one farm can be infecting the next one, seawater temperatures were high and as a result the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw paid a huge price loosing up to 40% of the young salmon leaving their rivers!

Today this research was published in Canada’s leading fisheries journal:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160720122842.htm

Sea lice are eating wild salmon to death everywhere in the world that salmon farms operate in net pens. See headline from Marine Harvest in Norway, one of the two companies involved in the outbreak in Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Territory. They appear unable to solve this problem. I let the federal government of Canada know about this outbreak last year and so did the rest of the team and yet the Federal Liberal government saw fit to give the industry 6 year licences on July 1, 2016.

This is how I know that doing the science is not enough. This is why I am writing to you from the deck of a Sea Shepherd vessel

We will be visiting the farms responsible for this, with representatives from the Dzawada’enuxw later this summer.

When we speak of sea lice on young wild salmon – this is what it looks like: Click here