Sea lice a drag on their hosts

Judith Lavoie
September 9, 2009
Times Colonist

Try swimming in the Pacific Ocean wearing a backpack, and that might hint at difficulties faced by juvenile salmon when sea lice are hitching a ride, according to conservation biologist Michael Price.

After years of researching the number of lice on salmon in the Discovery Islands, where there is a high concentration of fish farms, Price believes the wrong question is being asked in the polarized and often bitter debate over sea lice and the effect of farms on wild salmon.

"A lot of the mortality work done on pink and chum focuses on the size and lethal levels of lice," Price said.

Instead, the question should be whether lice reduce survival because afflicted fish cannot swim as fast or catch as much food and are more susceptible to predation, Price said.

Arguments that bigger fish, such as sockeye, are not killed by lice, lose sight of other effects, he said.

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