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Latest DFO sea lice research unsoundOctober 2, 2003 - VANCOUVER - The latest research on sea lice infesting salmon in the Broughton Archipelago is unsound and intended to confuse and cloud the serious issue of how high concentrations of salmon farms may affect lice populations in the waters off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, the David Suzuki Foundation said today. "I am astounded and appalled that a senior government scientist would conduct and then spuriously promote unsound research when in fact a whole team of fisheries department researchers are conducting a study that may shed some light on the reasons for recent epidemics of sea lice on juvenile salmon in that area," said Otto Langer, director of marine conservation for the David Suzuki Foundation. "The results of that study are due later this year, and the scientists conducting the research tested the juvenile salmon at the right time of year and as they left rivers, heading to sea. About one million dollars is being spent on this study yet we have one senior scientist who has taken it upon himself to do other research and release it in a manner that confuses the real issues associated with this serious problem," he added. Mr. Langer is referring to research undertaken by Dick Beamish, a senior scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo. His research was funded by the Science Council of BC and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and did not examine juvenile fish at the critical time and with the correct methods when they first leave rivers. Instead, Mr. Beamish sampled older juveniles that survived the spring lice epidemic and adult fish. "Mr. Beamish claims that it is astounding that adult fish returning from the ocean to spawn in rivers are covered in sea lice. This is not news nor any unusual phenomenon. We know that sea lice exist in the ocean and that they attach themselves to adult salmon. What we are concerned about is that high concentrations of salmon farms densely packed with fish make the problem even worse," Mr. Langer said. He questioned Mr. Beamish’s motivation for conducting research when a skilled DFO team was already doing the work. "My fear is that this represents yet another attempt by some people in DFO to look for data to absolve salmon farming from all responsibility of harming the marine environment. It is a sad and disturbing reflection on the department, but not surprising since a whole arm of DFO promotes aquaculture instead of protecting wild fish and their habitat." Mr. Langer calls on DFO to publicly state that the upcoming study, which is much more extensive than Mr. Beamish’s, is official department policy not the rushed work by Mr. Beamish and six other researchers. For more information, please contact Otto Langer or Jean Kavanagh
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