Question Period Note: Sea lice and aquaculture

What is the government doing to prevent the proliferation of sea lice?

• I am committed to conserving and protecting wild salmon.
• In British Columbia, the Department continues to implement measures to ensure that sea lice present no more than a minimal risk to wild salmon.
• Information on sea lice is constantly evolving. My department actively supports internal and collaborative research, and uses this and other external information to best manage sea lice.

• Sea lice are naturally occurring parasites in Canada’s coastal waters. While sea lice generally do not harm adult fish, they can harm small juvenile salmon as they emerge from river systems when they are quite small and without complete scale development for protection.
• Farmed fish are free of sea lice when they enter the ocean, but can pick them up in the marine environment. If not properly managed, sea lice levels can become elevated and wild juvenile salmon can be exposed to higher than natural levels during the spring out-migration period.
• Over the last couple of decades, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists have worked to build understanding and knowledge about sea lice, their relationship to the marine environment and fish, along with improved understanding of treatments and methods used to reduce their abundance on farmed fish, to inform improvements in management measures.
• One of the methods used to control sea lice is a Health Canada approved drug called SLICE. Due to some localized resistance to this drug, there is a push for the use of alternative methods to manage sea lice, including mechanical, thermal, freshwater, and other non-chemical treatments.
• DFO is exploring options to encourage innovation, including in non-chemical options to treat sea lice.
• In British Columbia (BC), the Department requires sea lice management, treatment, and mitigation measures at farms when sea lice levels are high. These measures have been very effective; most years, more than 90 per cent of sites are below the regulatory thresholds for sea lice during the out-migration period (March 1 to June 30). Any evidence of population-level harm to wild salmon resulting from salmon farms would prompt the immediate revision of aquaculture licences to ensure the conservation of wild salmon stocks.
• On the east coast, where the provinces are the lead regulators, information on sea lice management practices is not readily available to DFO, as sea lice monitoring is provincially mandated. Each province regulates the industry differently and relies on individual companies to submit management plans, which are not made public.
• In January 2023, DFO Science published new Science Advice on the association between sea lice from Atlantic salmon farms and sea lice infestations on juvenile wild Pacific salmon in British Columbia.
• The Science Response Report revealed a statistically nonsignificant association between sea lice infestation on Atlantic salmon farms and sea lice levels on wild juvenile Pacific salmon populations in BC.
• The study used data from multiple Atlantic salmon farms, reported to DFO by industry and subject to DFO auditing, and sea lice counts on wild fish collected and publicly available by a third party company for the industry sampled at specific distances from nearby farms in the four study areas.
• Analyses undertaken as part of the study include varying degrees of uncertainty and were limited by not taking into account certain factors, such as the influence of hydrodynamic processes in the vicinity of salmon farms and alternative sources of sea lice, which could potentially influence sea lice counts.
• Although concerns raised in media articles allege that industry under reports sea lice counts, DFO undertakes audits of the reported sea lice counts.
• DFO Science intends to continue to assess risks associated with farmed sea lice, which will continue to inform DFO’s approach to managing sea lice on farmed salmon in BC.
• The have been several recent media reports from some Canadian university academics critiquing the interim science advice provided in the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Science Response on sea lice.
• Following-up on this interim science advice, a more comprehensive sea lice risk assessment that focuses on the impacts of sea lice on both coasts is planned for 2024.

If pressed on sea lice Science Response process
• I have every confidence in the integrity of my Department’s scientists and the rigorous peer review process that is used to generate science advice.
• Science advice at the Department is generated through the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, which ensures that appropriate peer review has taken place and advice is shared with Canadians on the Department’s website.
• This is the first of two planned peer-review processes advancing our understanding of sea lice interactions in BC. A comprehensive risk assessment, is planned for 2024 and will result in a Science Advisory Report.

If pressed on sea lice on the east coast
• On the east coast, my department continues to work collaboratively with provincial partners who have the jurisdiction to manage sea lice.