Sea lice infection rates on juvenile chum salmon in a Salish Sea fjord with no Atlantic salmon net pens

• Main Authors: Wait, Micah, Fletcher, James, Tuohy, Adrian
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2018
• Subjects: Salmon; Sea lice; Salmon farm impacts; Fresh Water Studies; Life Sciences; Marine Biology; Natural Resources and Conservation; Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology; Keta; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2018ssec/allsessions/7; https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2442&context=ssec

In 2017, Wild Fish Conservancy documented sea louse (Lepeoptheirus salmonis) infection rates on juvenile chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) in the nearshore waters of Hood Canal, WA. Transmission of sea lice from the adult fish captive in salmon farms to wild outmigrating juvenile salmon has been posited as a primary impact of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) open net pen farming in the Salish Sea. Hood Canal is an isolated fjord that makes up the westernmost arm of Puget Sound. There are no open net pen Atlantic salmon farms in Hood Canal, sampling here should establish rates of sea lice infection on juvenile salmon that are outmigrating from regional rivers in the absence of Atlantic salmon farms. Fish were sampled at over 30 sites throughout the Hood Canal in a range of habitat types. Fish were brought to hand using a fine meshed beach seine and were examined for louse loading using hand lenses. Results of the project will be compared to infection rates that have been documented by other researchers in sites adjacent to open net pen Atlantic salmon farms.