A forthcoming study in Science shows that parasitic sea lice infestations caused by salmon farms are driving nearby populations of wild salmon toward extinction. Wild pink salmon have been rapidly declining for four years, reports SeaWeb. Author Martin Krkosek, a fisheries ecologist from the University of Alberta, expects a 99% collapse in another four years, or two salmon generations, if the infestations continue. The data are from the Broughton Archipelago, a group of islands 260 miles northwest of Vancouver, environmentally, culturally, and economically dependent on wild salmon.
This study and earlier studies by the same authors shows that sea lice from fish farms infect and kill juvenile wild salmon, raising serious concerns about net pen aquaculture in general. “It shows there is a real danger to wild populations from the impact of farms,” says Ray Hilborn, a fisheries biologist from the University of Washington, not involved in the study. “This paper is really about a lot more than salmon. This is the first study where we can evaluate these interactions and it certainly raises serious concerns about proposed aquaculture for other species such as cod, halibut and sablefish.”
If you must, eat wild Alaskan salmon.
Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.
