Full screen view (pause the current video first)

The latest film about a sea lice epidemic infecting Canada’s most important run of juvenile sockeye 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.

Thank-you to the Georgia Strait Alliance for their assistance. For more information on the salmon farming issue and to learn more about closed containment visit www.georgiastrait.org

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

Link to Published Research
Sea lice infestation of juvenile salmon and herring associated with fish farms off the east central coast of British Columbia. Published in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management

Interview Contacts

Chief of the Homalco First Nation
Darren Blaney (250) 287-0204
darrenb@telus.blackberry.net

Researcher
Alex Morton (250) 974-7177 or (250) 974-1664
wildorca@island.net

Georgia Strait Alliance
Ruby Berry (250) 218-6818
ruby@georgiastrait.org

Field Technician
Jodi Eriksson (250) 203-0296
owenbayjo@yahoo.ca

Filmmaker
Twyla Roscovich
(250) 703-3627
twyla@oceanfilms.net