Sea lice blame game is flawed
Letter to the Editor, By Mary Ellen Walling, Richmond News May 19, 2010
Re: "Protestors paddle for sockeye," News, May 12.
Protecting wild salmon is an important issue -- one that incites deep passion in many people.
Sometimes in that passion though, information can be left out, as was the case with the above named story.
Sea lice are a naturally-occuring marine parasite transferred from wild fish to farmed salmon.
Sea lice on B.C.'s salmon farms are highly monitored and regulated.
Not only are regular counts done but treatment is required if lice numbers reach a certain level.
That monitoring and reporting is conducted by industry and overseen by government.
Governments aren't allowing the industry 'despite' reports that argue against it -- they allow the industry to operate in the appropriate regulatory framework because they have done significant research themselves and feel that a properly-managed industry can operate without threatening wild stocks.
While Alexandra Morton says her papers prove that sea lice are destroying wild salmon, there is significant research that questions her conclusions.
For example, Dr. Richard Beamish's study reported the same number of lice on wild fish in areas near salmon farms as those away from them.
Morton's studies also claimed that the pink salmon would be extinct by now due to sea lice -- and yet last year, there was a record return of the pinks to the Broughton Archipelago, 20 years after farms were sited there.
Salmon farmers don't want sea lice to be a problem either -- not only out of concern for our own stocks, but because we are coastal residents as well, who feel the same passion for our wild salmon.
There are many challenges wild fish face from rising ocean temperatures, to the development of key watersheds, industrial activity on riverbanks, over-fishing, logging and more.
Naming sea lice as the culprit does a disservice to the broader discussion of true preservation.
Mary Ellen Walling
Executive director
BC Salmon Farmers Association
