farmed salmon give wild salmon the COOTIES!! was Fish you swear by

here ya go Blair -- just a taste of some of the research that blows your idiotic claims out of the water

Transmission dynamics of parasitic sea lice from farm to wild salmon

Martin Krko�Áek A1 A2, Mark A. Lewis A1 A2, John P. Volpe A2

A1 Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, Center for Mathematical Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E7 A2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E7

Abstract:

Marine salmon farming has been correlated with parasitic sea lice infestations and concurrent declines of wild salmonids. Here, we report a quanbreastative analysis of how a single salmon farm altered the natural transmission dynamics of sea lice to juvenile Pacific salmon. We studied infections of sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus clemensi) on juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) as they pbutted an isolated salmon farm during their seaward migration down two long and narrow corridors. Our calculations suggest the infection pressure imposed by the farm was four orders of magnitude greater than ambient levels, resulting in a maximum infection pressure near the farm that was 73 times greater than ambient levels and exceeded ambient levels for 30km along the two wild salmon migration corridors. The farm-produced cohort of lice parasitizing the wild juvenile hosts reached reproductive maturity and produced a second generation of lice that re-infected the juvenile salmon. This raises the infection pressure from the farm by an additional order of magnitude, with a composite infection pressure that exceeds ambient levels for 75km of the two migration routes. Amplified sea lice infestations due to salmon farms are a potential limiting factor to wild salmonid conservation.

Temporal Patterns of Sea Louse Infestation on Wild Pacific Salmon in Relation to the Fallowing of Atlantic Salmon Farms

Abstract. We report on a 3-year study of the infestation rates of the sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, on wild juvenile pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and chum salmon O. keta in the Broughton Archipelago, British Columbia. In 2002, the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food ordered farm fallowing (i.e., the removal of farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar from net-cages) along the presumed migration route of wild juvenile Pacific salmon in this area. The goal was to protect wild juvenile fish from sea louse infestation. We buttessed the effectiveness of this decision by comparing sea louse infestation rates on wild juvenile salmon near three Atlantic salmon farm sites prior to, during, and after fallowing. Overall, L. salmonis levels were significantly reduced (P , 0.0001) at the study sites during fallowing but returned to the original level after fallowing. The decline was age specific. While the abundance of the earliest attached sea louse phase (the copepodid stage) declined by a factor of 42, the mean abundance of adult L. salmonis did not decline significantly. Changes in salinity and temperature could not account for the decline. This study provides evidence that the fallowing of Atlantic salmon farms during spring juvenile salmon migrations can be an effective conservation and management tool for protecting wild salmon. While this correlation adds to the increasing weight of evidence linking Atlantic salmon farms to increased parasite loads on wild salmon, greater cooperation between researchers and farmers will be necessary to isolate the causal mechanisms and provide safe seaward pbuttage to wild juvenile salmon.