Evidence sea lice kill salmon

Mar 13 2006 A Simon Fraser University researcher has co-authored a new study providing direct evidence that sea lice, which have been linked to lice-infested fish farms, are killing migrating juvenile wild salmon in B.C.’s Broughton Archipelago between northern Vancouver Island and the mainland. The study by Rick Routledge, a fish population statistician and member of the university’s centre for coastal studies and biologist Alexandra Morton of the Raincoast Research Society was published March 3 in the Alaska fish and game department’s Alaska Fishery Research Bulletin. Mortality Rates for Juvenile Pink and Chum Salmon Infested with Sea Lice in the Broughton Archipelago, “provides direct evidence and a simple explanation for recent, major declines in pink and chum returns in the area,” says Routledge.