Over the past two months I have been looking into reports that sea lice on the farm salmon owned by Greig Seafood are resistant to the drugs used in BC to kill them. It is important to both the wild and farm industry to be able to kill sea lice, because in the feedlot - environment of fish farms sea lice will reproduce rapidly and kill salmon. In the wild sea lice cannot reach epidemic levels.
I am posting a conversation with Mr. Trevor Rhodes, Director Aquaculture Branch Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL) because he denies that there is any "evidence" of sea lice resistance, when the graphs posted on the MAL website, that include the farms in question in Esperanza Inlet, are in themselves "evidence" that treatment with the drug Slice did not work as it is supposed to suggesting the lice in those farms have become drug resistant. This has happened in eastern Canada and Norway and means we are losing what little ability we had to protect wild salmon from fish farms and that BC will be introducing new drugs to our waters to deal with this. The fish farm newspapers are already advertising these drugs.
This correspondence begins at the bottom with my outline of what I know. It goes on for several weeks with no answers and ends with the provincial vet Mark Sheppard asking me questions and the Director, Mr. Rhodes saying he trusts Sheppard has answered my questions.
I do not mean to embarrass these people, but if you want wild salmon you should be very concerned. DFO has clearly been told to stand down on this, and the province is going in circles, refusing to answer a simple forthright question with enormous implications to both wild and farm salmon.
Subject: Breach of Public trust
Dear Trevor Rhodes
No, Dr. Sheppard has not answered my concerns he asked me questions. Here is his email to me:
On 3/17/10 4:49 PM, "Sheppard, Mark AL:EX"
> Thank you for your email, Ms. Morton.
> You asked how these lice graphs do not suggest drug resistance in the sea lice
> infecting Grieg's fish. Have you considered the other biological,
> environmental and ecological explanations?
> Regards,
> Mark
Mr. Rhodes your vet asks me questions and you “trust” he has answered my questions, this is disturbing.
If MAL has allowed drug resistant lice to spread from Esperanza to the Discovery Islands, you could impact the entire Fraser and East Vancouver Island salmon stocks, as well as, the fish farm industry itself. If drug resistant lice have been spread to the Discovery Islands this will mean new drugs will have to be approved in BC sooner rather than later and that stands impact the prawn industry. Unfortunately given the geography, this lineage of lice could easily be spread north through Johnstone Strait, Broughton and Port Hardy and could easily elevate BC into a new fish farm drug regime as is underway in eastern Canada and Norway.
This is a very serious issue with widespread implications. A new plankton sample from the Walcan pipe a week ago caught lice and a living intestinal worm. There is no evidence of a 500 micron screen and even if there was one, the amount of bloodwater visibly pumping into the Fraser sockeye migration route is extremely careless management of our wild stocks, particularly one so endangered that the public is paying for a judicial inquiry into their astonishing collapse.
I really don’t think you have an answer, I think you and your Ministry are covering for Grieg. I think Grieg’s lice are drug resistant and you have allowed them to spread across Vancouver Island into British Columbia’s most valuable wild salmon habitat. I have asked repeatedly for DFO enforcement to examine this but clearly they have not been allowed to do so. I do so hope I am wrong about this, but yours and Dr. Sheppard’s responses this week increasingly suggest that you do not have any answers.
Is there anybody in Canada with the power and will to look into this and protect our wild salmon. I honestly don’t think there is. Someone should tell the public, nobody is looking after their fish.
Alexandra Morton
Ms. Morton,
Thank you for your emails regarding your continued concerns with sea lice on salmon farms in Nootka Sound. I asked Dr. Mark Sheppard our senior Aquatic Animal Health Veterinarian, who is the Ministry’s lead on sea lice, to consider your emails and concerns and respond to you. I understand that Dr. Sheppard has corresponded with you recently and I trust he has been able to address your concerns.
Sincerely,
Trevor Rhodes
Director, Aquaculture Operations
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
2500 Cliffe Avenue
Courtenay, BC
V9N 5M6
Ph: 250-897-7546
Cell: 250-703-6926
Fax: 250-897-7567
Email: trevor.rhodes@gov.bc.ca
Dear Trevor Rhodes
I still await some response from you
Dear Trevor Rhodes
I am trying to remain respectful of your position, but your response below appears to me as a breach of public trust. On the one hand you report there is “no indication” of drug resistance, and then you enclose links to your Ministry website that graphically depict failure of the drug Slice to reduce lice. Your graphs are strong “indication” of drug resistance. There is something very wrong that you don’t recognize and contain this situation.
I fully realize your graphs are averages over a large area (northwestern Vancouver Island), but I don’t see any farms outside Nootka/Esperanza contributing to the November data point and only 1 farm outside Nootka/Esperanza in the September/December averages. This one outside farm of the the correct age class is Marine Harvest’s Mahatta West site and they did not do a louse count in November (see Marine Harvest Website). However, your data is not the only indicator of drug resistance at the Grieg salmon farms.
I went to Esperanza and did a standard plankton tow that I have repeated at many salmon farms and found more than 4 times the highest number of sea lice larvae. As a result, I don’t need the Grieg data to assess that only 1.5 sea lice generations post Slice efficacy (following the October treatment), Esperanza fish farms have elevated sea louse numbers. This is not biologically possible mid-winter had the drug actually worked. My finding is consistent with your data reporting an average of 11 sea lice/farm salmon in this zone. Disturbingly these lice are the Slice survivors and will be even more resistant to future attempts at drug control and it is my concern that you are not moving to contain this potentially serious threat to wild salmon.
In Esperanza, I observed numerous female lice, with eggs, adhered to the hull of the packer Viking Star before it traveled south through Tahsis Inlet, past all the Muchalat fish farms to the Gold River. This means there is high likelihood of spreading this lineage of sea lice to the approximately 1 million farm salmon there. If this occurs there is high likelihood Slice will not protect the wild salmon from rivers in that region.
You state sea lice from Nootka have “minimal chance of survival” during transport to Quadra Island for processing. This is not accurate. When I examined a plankton net full of the effluent from that plant I found abundant hatching sea lice eggs. You have an entire enforcement branch with veterinary support and did not check if this effluent contains living lice.
Your own data points to drug resistance, my work supports this and indicates these lice are entering Discovery Passage alive where currents will easily bring them into contact with the millions of farm salmon held in that area. Sea lice are extremely good at finding salmon and if they attach to Marine Harvest and Mainstream fish, treatment with Slice will not work. Every subsequent drug treatment will increase resistance and the public loses the ability to protect their wild salmon from Norwegian salmon. This is occurring worldwide, just yesterday an ex-Attorney General of Norway warned us about this.. You should be moving to contain this, not allowing it to spread.
Mr. Rhodes, in my opinion, your investigation of public concern about drug resistant sea lice in Esperanza was cursory, dismissive, inadequate and risks a significant public resource – the Fraser sockeye. I have been in near daily contact with DFO enforcement who appears to me to be under orders to stand down and allow only the province to proceed even though these lice are currently spreading beyond the boundaries of the farm leases and have to be considered a deleterious substance. I find this disturbing and hope that Fisheries and Oceans will task their enforcement branch to salvage and contain this deplorable situation. Farm salmon are still coming from Esperanza to Quadra Island daily.
If the province remains as the lead agency in this investigation and continues to refuse to accurately interpret the evidence, risking a valuable public resource in favor of Grieg Sea Food I have to ask is it time to call the RCMP?
Alexandra Morton
On 2/9/10 3:49 PM, "Rhodes, Trevor AL:EX"
Dear Ms. Morton,
I appreciate the opportunity to follow up on your questions regarding Salmon farms in Nootka Sound.
Our Fish Inspector and Fish health Veterinarian attended Grieg’s Esperanza site on January 28, 2010. At that time an inspection was completed. Company records for sea lice were available, in order, comprehensive, and determined to meet all provincial regulatory requirements. We are unable to release specific information on individual farm sites as these records and their contents are considered “Veterinary Records” and are owned by the Company. For specific site-based information or records I encourage you to contact Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. directly. I have encouraged Grieg to provide this information to you. Please note that sea lice monitoring results are available on our Fish health website at the links below:
http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/ahc/fish_health/sealice_monitoring_results.htm
http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/ahc/fish_health/BCSFA_GRAPHS_ATL_2.4_2009.pdf
I can also confirm that we have verified that there has been one single Slice treatment at the Esperanza site this past fall. For additional detail or records I again encourage you to contact Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. directly. I would like to reiterate however, that there is no indication that sea lice in Nootka Sound or elsewhere in BC are resistant to SLICE.
Regarding the Walcan fish processing plant , I can also confirm that one of our Fish Inspectors attended the site on January 27th, 2010. It was the Inspector’s assessment that the protocols and screening / filter systems employed at the plant are sufficient to prevent sea lice from entering the marine environment.
Sincerely,
Trevor Rhodes
Trevor Rhodes
Director, Aquaculture Operations
Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
2500 Cliffe Avenue
Courtenay, BC
V9N 5M6
Ph: 250-897-7546
Cell: 250-703-6926
Fax: 250-897-7567
Email: trevor.rhodes@gov.bc.ca
From: Alexandra Morton [mailto:wildorca@island.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 6, 2010 10:00 AM
To: Rhodes, Trevor AL:EX; ThomsonA@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Cc: sproutpa@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca; Lewis, John; Roger Dunlop; Trevena, Claire
Subject: Questions
Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Thompson
Mr. Rhodes thank you for your reply. I have a few more questions and I am writing to you and DOF because the issue of potentially Slice resistant sea lice potentially being released into Discovery Passage might span both of your jurisdictions.
Please answer the following questions.
When did Grieg treat the current cohort of salmon at Esperanza and Steamer Point?
How many lice per fish have been reported in these farms since the treatment?
Has the province examined the Walcan plant?
What is the potential for lice from Nootka Sound entering Discovery Passage alive?
Standing by,
Alexandra Morton
On 2/5/10 12:44 PM, "Rhodes, Trevor AL:EX"
Ms. Morton,
Thank you for your note this morning regarding farms in Nootka Sound. I am in meetings today but will respond to you as quickly as I can early next week.
Trevor
Trevor Rhodes
Director,
Aquaculture Operations Branch
Courtenay, BC

From: Alexandra Morton
To: Rhodes, Trevor AL:EX
Cc: sproutpa@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Sent: Fri Feb 05 07:03:21 2010
Subject: Slice resistance?
Dear Trevor Rhodes,
On the 22nd of January I began receiving reports about sea lice in Nootka Sound “that Slice won’t touch,” meaning they are drug resistant.
Over the years more and more people contact me about worker conditions and events on salmon farms, as they are under pressure not to speak for themselves. There is no way I can know if they are sending correct information, but when I get the same news from apparently different sources, I do what I can to investigate.
In this case, while the reports from the public are all consistent, the ones from industry and government are not. This is disturbing because either the province is extremely disorganized on this very important issue, or you are covering for the salmon farming industry. I am sorry to be so blunt but I am open to hearing a third option.
The critical information here is; are the sea lice in any of Grieg’s farms drug resistant? To figure this out we need to know when were the farm salmon at Esperanza and Steamer Point were treated with Slice. I know from plankton samples that I took last week that Esperanza is shedding elevated sea lice larvae. There are several indications that these fish were treated in October. One provincial vet said so and photos of the medicated feed bags stamped “Steamer” were sent to me in October.
I was told there was an unusually large wild chum salmon run after this drug treatment wore off, but that would mean a December run of chums and no one has seen or heard of this. So an October Slice treatment and elevated sea lice levels in January suggests the reports from the public could be accurate. The fish being harvest at Esperanza are only about 6 pounds. I understand from the BCSFA release that they are harvesting these under-sized fish so they can “harmonize” their age-classes, but a provincial vet said they were harvesting to protect the wild salmon from the high sea lice levels in this farm and at Steamer. Generally, in my experience, when fish farms have lice they treat, not kill their fish.
So you can see my cause for concern.
Drug resistance is occurring in many places worldwide and for BC this would mean use of bath treatment drugs would have to begin. I think the public should be consulted on this because bath treatments are released into the ocean and affect shell-bearing animals. But ultimately we can look to the present-day situation in Norway to see where this will take us; higher and higher drug resistance in lice and loss of control. No matter what the pest, drugs are an escalating arms race we humans lose every time.
If there is any concern these sea lice are drug resistant they certainly should not be trucked across the island to the Discovery Islands as is currently underway. If they spread there we will lose the ability to protect the Fraser sockeye.
I have been in contact with Yves Antaya, but he has apparently not opened a file on this as of last week and I don’t think that is appropriate given the critical nature of this situation.
So I am writing to you to ask: when were the farm salmon at these two sites treated and what are the lice counts on them today?
Alexandra Morton
