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Happy to announce our new paper in @ESAApplications! Sea louse counts by BC salmon farms seem to be under-reported. This means delousing treatments may not be happening often enough, putting wild salmon at risk @PSF @DFO_Pacific [1/11] https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.2226
![Happy to announce our new paper in @ESAApplications! Sea louse counts by BC salmon farms seem to be under-reported. This means delousing treatments may not be happening often enough, putting wild salmon at risk @PSF @DFO_Pacific [1/11] https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.2226](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgb8czVoAANeLi.jpg "Happy to announce our new paper in @ESAApplications! Sea louse counts by BC salmon farms seem to be under-reported. This means delousing treatments may not be happening often enough, putting wild salmon at risk @PSF @DFO_Pacific [1/11] https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eap.2226")
Salmon farming is a big industry in BC and around the world. These farms hold upwards of a million fish in open net pens along the coastline that they share with migrating wild salmon. [2/11]
![Salmon farming is a big industry in BC and around the world. These farms hold upwards of a million fish in open net pens along the coastline that they share with migrating wild salmon. [2/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhgcRnVVoAEu73a.jpg "Salmon farming is a big industry in BC and around the world. These farms hold upwards of a million fish in open net pens along the coastline that they share with migrating wild salmon. [2/11]")
It doesn’t take much imagination in 2020 to appreciate how lots of animals in small spaces might breed disease. Salmon farms are no exception, and probably the biggest challenge they face on this front is a group of parasites called sea lice. [3/11]
![It doesn’t take much imagination in 2020 to appreciate how lots of animals in small spaces might breed disease. Salmon farms are no exception, and probably the biggest challenge they face on this front is a group of parasites called sea lice. [3/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgc75bU0AAKCiT.jpg "It doesn’t take much imagination in 2020 to appreciate how lots of animals in small spaces might breed disease. Salmon farms are no exception, and probably the biggest challenge they face on this front is a group of parasites called sea lice. [3/11]")
Sea lice are parasites that feed on the skin and flesh of fish. Salmon farms are big sources of sea lice to wild salmon, and sea lice have been linked to wild salmon population declines. [4/11]
![Sea lice are parasites that feed on the skin and flesh of fish. Salmon farms are big sources of sea lice to wild salmon, and sea lice have been linked to wild salmon population declines. [4/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgc-yoVgAAhGjX.jpg "Sea lice are parasites that feed on the skin and flesh of fish. Salmon farms are big sources of sea lice to wild salmon, and sea lice have been linked to wild salmon population declines. [4/11]")
To limit the spread of sea lice to wild salmon, farms are required to perform expensive treatments that kill their sea lice if numbers get too high. DFO regulators know treatments are needed through counts of sea lice performed by salmon farm staff. [5/11]
![To limit the spread of sea lice to wild salmon, farms are required to perform expensive treatments that kill their sea lice if numbers get too high. DFO regulators know treatments are needed through counts of sea lice performed by salmon farm staff. [5/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhgdivjUMAAQOwM.jpg "To limit the spread of sea lice to wild salmon, farms are required to perform expensive treatments that kill their sea lice if numbers get too high. DFO regulators know treatments are needed through counts of sea lice performed by salmon farm staff. [5/11]")
So the salmon farms perform the counts that determine whether or not they have to do expensive treatments. DFO tries to address this potential conflict of interest by performing occasional, pre-arranged audits of industry counts. [6/11]
![So the salmon farms perform the counts that determine whether or not they have to do expensive treatments. DFO tries to address this potential conflict of interest by performing occasional, pre-arranged audits of industry counts. [6/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhgdlfSVoAAarJC.jpg "So the salmon farms perform the counts that determine whether or not they have to do expensive treatments. DFO tries to address this potential conflict of interest by performing occasional, pre-arranged audits of industry counts. [6/11]")
We found that when DFO is auditing the farms, industry counts are consistently higher. This means that most of the counts from industry are actually 15% less than the true numbers of one species of louse, and 50% less for the other species. [7/11]
![We found that when DFO is auditing the farms, industry counts are consistently higher. This means that most of the counts from industry are actually 15% less than the true numbers of one species of louse, and 50% less for the other species. [7/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgd0awUMAEVHl2.jpg "We found that when DFO is auditing the farms, industry counts are consistently higher. This means that most of the counts from industry are actually 15% less than the true numbers of one species of louse, and 50% less for the other species. [7/11]")
So what does this mean? If the industry sea-louse counts are chronically under-reported, then fewer treatments are being performed and wild salmon are being exposed to even more sea lice than they should be. [8/11]
![So what does this mean? If the industry sea-louse counts are chronically under-reported, then fewer treatments are being performed and wild salmon are being exposed to even more sea lice than they should be. [8/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgd23AUMAACH1m.jpg "So what does this mean? If the industry sea-louse counts are chronically under-reported, then fewer treatments are being performed and wild salmon are being exposed to even more sea lice than they should be. [8/11]")
There are several potential solutions that we discuss in the paper - probably the one that jumps out to most people would be a shift to independent third-party monitoring instead of letting the salmon farms count sea lice themselves. [9/11]
![There are several potential solutions that we discuss in the paper - probably the one that jumps out to most people would be a shift to independent third-party monitoring instead of letting the salmon farms count sea lice themselves. [9/11]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ehgd5tiU0AAmweE.jpg "There are several potential solutions that we discuss in the paper - probably the one that jumps out to most people would be a shift to independent third-party monitoring instead of letting the salmon farms count sea lice themselves. [9/11]")
Wild salmon are the backbone of this coast. Our results suggest that some management changes are needed to ensure that salmon farms are complying with regulations put in place to safeguard these iconic fish. 
[10/11]
[10/11]
Huge thanks to my co-authors @bat3man @Reynolds_JohnD and Martin Krkosek who put in an incredible amount of work to help push this work forward over the past couple years, and to Tavish Campbell for the wonderful photos! 
[11/11]
[11/11]
