Salmon farmers test sea lice treatments in Atlantic Canada

AQUACULTURE NORTH AMERICA
http://www.capamara.com

by Quentin Dodd
link to .pdf of article

A large well-boat arrived in New Brunswick a few weeks ago to begin six months’ work to help Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming industry combat sea lice.

    The vessel, which took several weeks to arrive from Norway, is to be used to test the efficacy of at least one and maybe two products to counter fish-borne sea lice at pen sites in the region.

    Pam Parker, Executive Director for the New Brunswick Salmon Growers Association, said that the aquaculture industry in Atlantic Canada recently received approval from the national health department’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to carry out tests using hydrogen peroxide (Interox-Paramove50) in the well-boat over a six-month period ending in November.

    The tests are to be carried out initially in New Brunswick’s Passamaquoddy Bay, said Parker, but if the timing and the water temperatures are right, they could move on to other parts of the region.

    Parker emphasized that hydrogen peroxide, the active ingredient in Interox, loses its effectiveness if the water gets too warm. Because of that, she said, the salmon farming industry also asked for permission to test-run the compound Salmosan in the vessel’s wells, but no decision on that had been handed down at press time. The industry already has permission from PMRA to use Salmosan in tarpaulin-bath treatments at farms in New Brunswick.

    Parker said the Ronja Carrier is under charter from its Norwegian owners Solvtrans. It has two 750-cubic-metre wells and will work with fish farms in the Passamaquoddy Bay area, to carry out bath treatments aboard.

    Parker also said that the arrival of the vessel also marks the beginning of new research projects regarding sea lice treatments on the coast. The projects involve industry, institutes and academia, as well as federal and provincial government agencies.

    That segment of the overall program, which has an estimated price tag of about $5 million, will see scientists and other researchers looking into the use of hydrogen peroxide as a more ecologically friendly alternative to Slice and other chemotherapy-type drugs. Close to $1 million of the expected price tag for the well-boat work is coming from the industry.

    Parker stressed that hydrogen peroxide is widely used for a number of human purposes and is known to become rapidly inert and harmless to the environment.

    “It’s used very effectively in Europe in well-boats and you’ll get 80-100% clearance (of the lice) with it,” she said.

    Parker said that as a result of the wide human use of hydrogen peroxide as an environment – and user-friendly material, the association’s coalition and industry were able to win support for the experimental program from the Passamaquoddy area’s lobstermen and traditional commercial fishermen.

    That was echoed, she said, from the Atlantic Salmon Federation and other conservation groups.

    Parker indicated that it had been hoped to treat all the farms in Passamaquoddy Bay with hydrogen peroxide in a spring-early summer session, before the water gets too warm, and to follow that with another set of treatments in the fall before the vessel goes back to Norway.

Sea Lice Research

Throughout the past winter and spring, the NBSGA collaborated with a broad range of researchers from government, academia and private institutions to develop a multi-faceted sea lice research program. That includes:

•    Continued research into the potential environmental impact of sea lice treatments;
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•    Development of novel or “green” technologies for sea lice management;
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•    Environmental monitoring that “will lead to a greater understanding of the sources and timing of lice both on wild species and in the zooplankton;” and
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•    Development and implementation of tools to monitor and record fish health data.