A sea lice infestation forced Cermaq Canada to shut down its Fortune Channel salmon farm near Tofino over the summer.
“Closing the site was the right thing to do as the fish were never going to recover well and would remain a target for sea lice,” Cermaq Canada spokesperson Amy Johnson told the Westerly News via email.
She suggested unusually warm and dry weather in Clayoquot Sound caused “poor environmental conditions for our fish, most notably water quality.”
“The fish entered in the spring of this year, sea lice free, and then experienced challenging water quality conditions which impacted their health and gill condition,” she wrote.
The provincial government gave the company permission to use pesticide Paramove50 to treat sea lice at its farms in March of this year, but that treatment proved insuffient to save the fish at Fortune Channel.
Andrew Bailey – Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News – October 27, 2018.
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