The spring of 2018 saw parasitic sea lice on both farmed and wild juvenile salmon in Clayoquot Sound reach levels never before seen in the Province of B.C. Forty to ninety-six percent of the wild
fish sampled were infested, many at levels that would ensure death. Sea lice are normally kept in check with the use of a drug called SLICEâ„¢.
This report sets out the evidence that the parasite has become resistant to this drug; and that regulators and industry knew resistance was developing as early as 2014, but have publicly and repeatedly denied the fact.
Worse yet, despite the approval of alternate treatments that might have been effective if used before lice levels soared as high as eighteen times the management threshold, industry failed to have alternate treatments available in time to prevent lethal levels of infestation on outmigrating juvenile wild salmon.
Living Oceans Society –Â Karen Wristen & Alexandra Morton – October 29, 2018.