Juvenile Salmon Ecology Project
The depletion of marine fisheries has been an impetus to expand seafood production through aquaculture. In BC, salmon farming has grown in response to a decline in wild salmon and global marketing that promotes year-round consumption of farmed salmon, leading to more complications for wild salmon.
Raincoast’s concerns over salmon farms stem from the documented and suspected threats to wild salmon, from sea lice infestations (which concentrate on farms and spread to wild juvenile salmon), and disease transfer from farmed to wild salmon.
Raincoast’s past work: Sea lice, wild salmon, and salmon farms
This field and laboratory research examined the extent of sea lice infections on wild juvenile pink and chum salmon in the Bella Bella region of the BC central coast (an area without fish farms) and compared these findings with the intensity of sea lice infections in areas that contain fish farms (Klemtu, Broughton Archipelago, and northern Georgia Strait).
Results showed that sea lice levels increased in concert with farmed salmon production. In the North, juvenile wild salmon hosted low lice levels at sites far from fish farms and elevated levels near fish farms. Lice levels were highest among the northern Georgia Strait, which is home to a staggering 32 salmon farms.
Results from this study were published in the following papers:
Fraser Sockeye Early Marine Ecology Project
Fraser sockeye comprise Canada’s largest and most lucrative salmon runs. Our objective was to ascertain if, and if so to what degree, salmon farms situated along the Georgia Strait migration route of juvenile sockeye might impair their health. 2009 was the lowest return of Fraser sockeye salmon ever recorded, despite favourable ocean conditions and an exceptionally large out-migration of fry from 2007. Our research on the 2007 outbound juvenile sockeye raises concerns that salmon farms enhance parasitic infections on sockeye smolts.
Results from this study were published in the following paper:
You can help
Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.
We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.
