Sea Lice found on River Trout: Clayoquot Sound Salmon Alarm

by Steve Lawson

Dear Friends; we live in Clayoquot Sound and fish regularly here.  We've recently been fishing trout in the Cypre River in Bedwell Inlet where Mainstream has 7 fish farms, two at the entrance to the Cypre River. 

 

Every time we have gone up this river this summer, the trout we have caught have been covered with sea lice, something we have never seen before.  This picture of the most recent one caught (two days ago, Tues, 18th, August) had at least 14 sea lice on it. 

 

It even had sea lice on its tail and two on its head, one dripping over its mouth. We caught some trout two weeks ago and recorded the same thing. 

 

We have heard that in Scotland where the fish farms are plentiful, the trout and most of the wild salmon have disappeared.  We are catching most of these trout in fresh water quite far up the Cypre River and as you can see, the sea lice are surviving quite well on these poor trout. 

 

We have a small video documenting where it was caught and all the sea lice on it.  This is very alarming and the fact that these trout (cutthroat) are carrying the sea lice into the rivers where the salmonids are trying to survive is of great concern. 

 

There were quite a few salmonid in the river's pools along with these trout and quite a few little trout living in the river as well.  Everything is being negatively impacted by the fish farms in the vicinity of our rivers and streams and the fact that these sea lice can live on fish far up into the fresh water is of immediate concern.  We have also noted that this year, the sea lice on the some of the returning salmon have extremely long tails of eggs, something not noticed before. 

 

Wishing you all the best, Susanne Hare and Steve Lawson