Are fish farms in the Broughton causing the dramatic increase in sea lice levels?
This is unlikely. Sea lice were not originally a salmon-farming phenomenon. Sea lice have existed on wild salmon for tens of thousands of years before the first salmon farm was established in Canada and wild salmon have adapted to them. There are two possible sources of sea lice in the Broughton Archipelago; from natural sources, like other fish, or from salmon farms. From last year’s studies we do know that the contribution from other fish (sticklebacks) was significant.
