Calling From The Coast

exploring BC’s wild coast through video

Fraser River Sockeye Lice Infection

in this film we accompany a research crew as they sample the juvenile sockeye fry migrating up the coast, past the lice plumes of dozens of fish farms. This video is especially important as it illustrates how the salmon farms are impacting Canada’s largest run of salmon

The Fraser River may be the worlds largest salmon producing river. At the end of June we visited with a research project underway in the Discovery Islands off of Campbell River where a small crew is sampling the juvenile sockeye salmon from the Fraser along their out migration to sea. Most of the Fraser sockeye travel up the Inside Passage and past many of British Columbia’s 130+ industrial salmon farming operations. The sampling crew is finding alarming levels of lice on these juvenile fish, which represent Canada’s most important run of salmon.

Migration Route of juvenile sockeye (after leaving Fraser River) and location of salmon farms