Last week, Audrey and Kurt from the Wild Fish Conservancy held an information forum for the community of Tofino. Audrey is the lead scientist in the 5 year sea lice research project; last year, 2009 was the pilot year. This information session was held in order to report on their findings from last year and keep the public informed about their intentions in Clayoquot Sound. Clayoquot Wilderness Resort welcomed the scientists, last year, by supplying the group with lodging, at the floating lodge, and a laboratory. They will have the same accommodations this year and the duration of their study, of course.
The meeting was informative and the findings were factual and extremely alarming. The main focus of their presentation was on Bedwell Sound. If you are unfamiliar with Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, we are located at the mouth of Bedwell River. The reason that they focused on this particular fjord was due to the fact that it has the highest number of fish farms located on any of the migration routes in their study. However, they made sure to include the other test sites in their discussion which was arranged in graphs, charts and percentages indicating the waterways with the highest amount of farms to the lowest. In every situation they presented, it was clear that the test site with the highest amount of farms also had the highest amount of sea lice found. Moreover, the amount of lice decreased with the amount of farms.
Some other interesting facts that they found from last year were: They found that the fish moved quickly out of the systems and the method of judging this was looking at the life stage of the lice on the fish as they followed them on their migration route. They found that by the time the fish leave the Bedwell, in May, more than 80% of fish had lice. In addition, an extremely high percentage of the lice had matured to their adult stage by the time they made it to the last test site; therefore, the adult lice are able to reproduce and re-infect the same school of fish. In their study, they considered 1.6 lice per 1 gram of fish are detrimental. In all of these sites the salinity levels were constant; the difference was the number of farms.
The goal of the pilot year, 2009, was to determine the distribution of lice and infected fish. As well as establishing the most productive test sites. The Scientists plans for this year are to focus on the spots that they were able to catch fish. They are going to expand their efforts to determine the most suitable control sites. They would like to expand their staff with more students and volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering you can contact the Wild Fish Conservancy at www.wildfishconservancy.org . Audrey and her team realize that their research is not the answer and that the answer is in fact very complex. However, they would like to provide their information to the people that are making decisions about the fate of the wild salmon.
I saw your article above, it is Unique. How I wish to go there!
Posted by: Jennifer Masagaysay | February 07, 2010 at 11:31 PM