Tracking sea lice : Lepeophtheirus salmonis, between host fish populations using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes ...

• Main Author: Dean, Susan
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2011
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Pink salmon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0100692; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0100692

This study was undertaken to assess the use of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses as methods to identify source host fish populations of sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis. The delta carbon signatures of parasitic copepodid sea lice used to infect cultured Atlantic salmon in the laboratory were found to be statistically indistinguishable from the delta carbon signatures of blood (ANOVA, p = 1.000) and mucus (ANOVA, p = 0.430) sampled from the wild pink salmon population from which the sea lice originated. As a result, delta carbon signatures show potential as tools to track the movement of sea lice between fish populations. In contrast, delta nitrogen analysis did not show such promise as the natal host fish, wild pink salmon, and novel host fish, cultured Atlantic salmon, between which sea lice were transferred during the study, did not display distinct isotope signatures and thus could not be differentiated. This study found that when applying stable isotope analysis as a method to studying the ...