"North-West Bay" by Daniel Patman, Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Salmon farming provides jobs and is easily accessible food to local and big markets. With how big our population is, the demand for food grows. Our need for animal-based foods is up by 50%; animal-based foods provide us with many benefits, including high-quality protein, vitamins, and minerals. Salmon is becoming a huge market for the fish industry, and with the rising demand for the fish market, fish farms and salmon farms are needed to keep up with the influx of fish consumption. Salmon farming also takes relief off of wild-caught salmon and helps wild salmon repopulate, while some fish farms are more ecologically responsible than traditional fishing.
"Salmon Farm 2007" by WaterShed_Watch, Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Jobs in salmon farming provide $1.5 billion a year to the economy. Salmon farming can create many job opportunities and help with the seafood deficit around the U.S. Jobs in fisheries can help provide year-round jobs to people on the waterfront (Citta Paramita, 2021.) It also creates additional jobs in other industries, such as feed manufacturing, cage manufacturing, and veterinary services. In 2012, Americans imported 230 thousand metric tons of farmed salmon valued at $1.6 billion. Expanding US-farmed salmon production to replace imports would create 14,000 to 23,000 new American jobs—the U.S. needs more jobs with our growing population. Not only do more businesses need to be created, but quality jobs also need to be created to create a stable work environment which salmon farming can do. Salmon farming can create stable jobs for many and employ 5-10 people per thousand metric tons of annual production (Odd Grydeland, February 2018.) Salmon farming doesn't just help with jobs in the U.S. but also worldwide with unemployment and helps create stable and long-term work.
"CRW_1410" by Malcolm Dickson, All rights Reserved
"CRW_1373" by Malcolm Dickson, All rights Reserved
How are sustainable salmon farms made? Salmon farms can be created in outdoor ponds or indoor tanks. Ponds take more upkeep but are a more natural way to keep salmon. While tanks are easier to maintain and keep the temperature regulated, they need a good filtration system to keep the water clean (Lisa Price, 2022.) The use of a filtration system or re-circulation system helps clear the water of pollutants and waste. Using plant-based feed instead of wild fish feed can pollute the water and is hard to filtrate. Though these systems are better and more sustainable, wild-caught salmon can be most sustainable. Creating renewable energy sources is a big part of making a sustainable fish/salmon farm. This is because most fisheries rely on fossil fuels to sustain their farm. Renewable energy in fisheries could help reduce the carbon emissions released by fish farms. Minimizing the amount of chemicals used to treat the fish can help keep the farm more sustainable while also making it more healthy to consume. Consistently monitored water quality is a big part of sustainability in fish farming; keeping the water clean where the fish live is important in keeping healthy fish. Water Ph that changes frequently can harm the fish and create a loss in production. This is also the same with the temperature of the water. If the water rises in temperature, it can also cause a loss in production. A stable water environment for farmed salmon keeps it from diseases and helps keep the farm sustainable.
What is the difference between farmed salmon and wild-caught? Wild-caught salmon is caught straight from the water; these fish are not given anything they would not eat in the wild or given any additives. Depending on where the salmon was caught and if there was any pollution in the water, and what the salmon's diet was, salmon provides omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (Melinda Ratini, 2021.) Farmed salmon are raised in tanks or enclosures where they get controlled food and antibiotics that prevent disease. Farmed salmon is easily accessible and makes up 75% of the U.S. consumption of salmon. Farmed salmon does raise the risk of type two diabetes and may be higher in saturated fat. Both ways of catching salmon can be sustainable if done correctly and both can be done in harmful ways. As stated previously, farmed salmon can help with the loss of wild salmon and help them repopulate.
Sea lice or “sea louse’ are very small crustacean looking creatures that are larvae sized oceanic parasites. They attach themselves to a host, most typically salmon and they feed upon the host’s flesh and blood for the remainder of either the hosts or the sea lice’s life.
The sea lice infestation problem is bad enough amongst wild salmon. The problem gets even worse amongst farmed salmon due to the fact that the salmon are in such close proximity to each other. The sea lice spread from salmon to salmon and cause a multitude of problems. These problems include: skin damage and death. The risk for death is especially prevalent amongst younger salmon. The skin damage is the most common occurrence and the result of this is that the salmon are virtually unsellable.
What happens when sea lice come in contact with salmon farms is that the sea lice attach themselves to the gills of the salmon. As previously mentioned, this causes the salmon's skin to be harmed. The skin being harmed impacts both the salmon’s health along with the ability to sell that salmon in the open market. These creatures spread hard and fast. Sea lice is highly contagious and as severe as the risk is for farmed salmon, the risk absolutely extends to wild salmon. The issue with this is pretty self explanatory as the sea lice extending to wild salmon out in the open ocean has the potential to ravage an entire fish population.
This ties into another effect that sea lice have on salmon farming. This is the environmental effect. The measures that farmers take to prevent sea lice often involve harsh chemicals. This is often the last resort as the chemicals are often very costly. These chemicals are harmful to just about all they come into contact with. These chemicals are also operating on a limited timeframe, as the sea lice have begun to evolve to the point of developing near resistance to these chemicals. The sea lice are small but advanced creatures that hold the capability to ravage anything in its path.
The sea lice seemingly have the ability to negatively affect many different species as well as many different sectors of everyday human life. The economic impacts being the most prevalent as these tiny creatures cost around $300 million dollars per year. This is more than the GDP of certain countries. Environmentally, they can cause illness and death to any population they attach themselves to. Especially younger variants of species who do not have the immune systems to deal with the sea lice. If the immune systems are attacked enough, even in adult variations of species, they can contract diseases even more deadly than the sea lice themselves. This paired with the fact that the main approach farmers take currently is to dish out harsh chemicals, you can see the environmental impact these sea lice have. If they go unchecked, they can pull a multi million dollar industry under. If they are dealt with in the manner they currently are, then the sea and surrounding areas are in danger as a result of the chemicals being poured as a means of killing the lice.
A Greater Chain Reaction at Large
Sea lice is an international problem consisting of many different countries and communities. Sea lice continues to negatively affect fishing countries with rich fishing cultures and their native communities that have long since been around before larger companies started to push for profits. The issue of sea lice has started a chain reaction of negative events that has only worsened the problem on a larger scale. If action is not taken soon the number of healthy fish in the global ecosystem will decrease, moreover the number of humans becoming infected from contaminated fish. Finally pollution will only get worse as the continual standards are used for the problem of sea lice.
Chile citizens protesting salmon fish farming by The Guardian used under Fair Use https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/30/salmon-farming-in-the-beagle-channel-enters-troubled-waters
A Greater Chain Reaction at Large
Sea lice have inadvertently caused a global salmon crisis. Salmon fishing is a major industry on a global scale. Many different countries other than the U.S. have salmon farming industries that have become large scale. Such countries include Chile and Norway that combined are responsible for producing 75% of the world's supply of salmon. However, because of sea lice countries have looked to antibiotics and pesticides to destroy the parasites. Now in recent years we have seen an unregulated amount of chemicals leading to the rapid spreading of disease, malnutrition, and pollution.(R. M. 2020)The Chilean economy is dependent on the salmon fish farming industry. In addition, presently there is a rich artisanal fishing culture that is due to Chile's diverse marine ecosystem. To keep up with today's demand Chile has overpopulated their salmon farming population that has increased disease spread. In response Chilean salmon farming has looked towards drugs like florfenicol and oxytetracycline in large amounts. In comparison the leading producer of the fish Norway only used 2,412 pounds of these antibiotics, while Chile used 1.2 million pounds. These drugs are regularly seen in Veterinary and human medicines delaying conclusive studies before companies can be regulated on the amount used. Furthermore the use of these drugs have polluted the water and threatened the surrounding indigenous communities of Chile. Salmon byproducts and the chemicals leaking into the natural ecosystem are lethal to the native populations and develop micro resistant bacteria that can infect humans.
Chile
A Greater Chain Reaction at Large
The indigenous of Chile communities now look to the large fish farming companies' for fault and look to take down these companies for their pollution and bacteria production. One such native is the first hand account of Leticia Caro in which she says the companies are destroying her family's ancestral way of life.(Laje, D. 2019)Her community uses small inadequate boats using wind and star navigation to stir. The community also still uses techniques passed down from their ancestors. Caro has seen little victories in recent years with the start of regulation in antibiotics and the size of the farms for salmon. However, Chile has recently seen the highest level of sea lice in 2020 with the number increasing.
"Are Chile’s industrial salmon farms changing the seas?" by Laje, D. is licensed under CC BY 4.0
"Are Chile’s industrial salmon farms changing the seas?" by Laje, D. is licensed under CC BY 4.0
As companies begin to use stronger and more effective pesticides, more fish will become contaminated and more humans are at risk from high levels of antibiotics. Even worse there is the possibility of the parasites mutating and becoming immune to the chemicals creating stronger and deadly bacteria. On a larger scale if the salmon industry of Chile was to fall the price of the fish would rapidly rise and put greater pressure on the industries of other countries like Norway. If the problem continues Chile will expect to see mass mortality rates and poor growth within the population.Chile must look to come together and unite under one cause, if they look to continue to fish in these waters, control bacteria, and pollution. The fish farms, while essential for the county's economy and revenue, must regulate their amounts of antibiotics to prevent more damage. More revenue must be looked at through possible tourism and alternative fishing to protect the environment such as the Beagle Channel where companies tried to expand with 1.9 million increase in fish and 18 new industrial cages. Alternative means of fishing must be found if the 240 km habitat wishes to remain intact.
Infestation and Harmful Solutions
The infestation of sea lice has many significant issues that correlate with salmon farming and the entire industry. In comparison, through experiments and research, scientists are beginning to test not only the effects of sea lice, but also the benefits that come with harvesting another species next to salmon. Many more solutions are being brought to the forefront of the whole problem to try and reduce the long lasting effects sea lice will soon pose to salmon farms. The most common sea lice treatment involves drug and pesticide use, a method that can be effective, however, has more of a negative overall impact to the fish (SeafoodSource 2019).
Along with this health impact, the salmon that are treated by chemicals are not able to be sold for days to weeks afterwards due to the chemicals needing to flush out and attack the sea lice (Global Seafood Alliance 2). To make matters worse, the treatment can end up being ineffective if the salmon have built up a resistance to sea lice treatment overtime, an immune evolution. While the chemical treatments may seem to be the easier option for getting rid of sea lice, they are at fault in the same ways that chemicals are used on any other type of species. There are always undermining side effects that come with chemicals and pesticides, health is not the first priority.
In comparison to this first attempt at solving the greater sea lice issue, researchers and scientists are looking into safer and healthier options for reducing the sea lice infestation. In aquaculture, scientists attempt to use other, cleaner, unaffected, fish species to combat sea lice. Farmed Ballan Wrasse and Lumpfish are known to feed on sea lice which makes them extremely beneficial to the aquaculture environment (Global Seafood Alliance). Researchers are exploring and looking into the behavioral traits of cleaner fish and their inheritance. Breeding programs could use these cleaner, more versatile fish to try and carry over the traits of eating sea lice in order to decrease the amounts found in salmon farms.
According to Global Seafood, “A previous SAIC-study funded showed that bolder Ballan Wrasse are likely to be a better fit for the job of picking sea lice from salmon. The bolder fish showed no hesitation when presented with foreign objects in their tanks, and the research team is now exploring how to use this type of test on a commercial scale. (Global Seafood Alliance)” The breeding programs can come into effect once the distinction between bigger and bolder fish versus smaller ones takes place to decipher which is more effective overall.
Categorizing different traits and then comparing them to how they perform at picking sea lice from salmon will be the main goal. Dr. Adam Brooker, a research fellow in aquatic animal behavior at the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture stated, “Being able to identify the best delousers, based on behavior, could lead to significant improvements in the health and welfare of salmon and a reduction in the number of cleaner fish used. Seeing how cleaner fish behave when cohabiting will also help us understand how these fish interact with each other so we can account for this once they are integrated into producers’ sites” (Global Seafood Alliance).The psychological evidence found through these species of Lumpfish and Ballan Wrasse could provide more beneficial results in the future.
Another similar solution that was discovered by a research team lead by Ian Bricknell, a professor of aquaculture biology at the university of Maine Orono, found that farming blue mussels alongside salmon pens helps to alleviate the sea lice problem because the mussels feed on sea lice larvae (TCA Regional News 2).
While the alternative of growing another species next to salmon may be tedious, it would allow the sea lice infestations to be minimized because they would become prey rather than predator in that environment. A recent study at UMaine is going to allow research to be formed to design fish farms to raise finfish like salmon alongside mussels. Similar success has been found in harvesting oysters and scallops. The benefits that come from this solution are simply the access to getting free lice-control from crops, and along with that, a second crop can be grown that has a significant market value (TCA Regional News 3).
"Blue Mussels" by Travis S. is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
"File:Farmed salmon net pens - panoramio.jpg" by Sam Beebe/Ecotrust is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
"California Fishery Foundation secures the net pens" by USFWS Pacific Southwest Region is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A simpler solution that strays away from genetics and breeding was constructed by the AKVA Group who is collaborating with Northern Lights Salmon and Sørrollnesfisk. This specific idea is correlated with the infrastructure we already have in use and what we can do to make it more sustainable and useful to the problem. A new net-pen would be launched to combat the sea lice. Christian Balteskard, Project Manager for Northern Lights Salmon and Sørrollnesfisk states in relation to the net, “It is a spaghetti net with a custom-made lice skirt, where the skirt is attached both at the top and bottom of the net, we can go down to a full 15 meters with a lice skirt without experiencing too much deformation” (Global Seafood Alliance).
While this option may be less tactical because it only targets the space it has so far in comparison to the rest of the salmon farms, it will be convenient. By looking for a solution that is easily accessible and close at hand, sustainable results can be found much faster. The net will provide the ability to see how the experiment works and whether or not the nets should be invested on a larger scale.
The sea lice infestation issue is widespread, continuing to affect the outcomes of separate salmon farms. Scientists find it important to highlight that there are several different ways to combat a solution to the infestation of sea lice on salmon farms. While some solutions post threats to fish and human consumption health, such as pesticides and chemicals, there are others, such as using cleaner fish that are predators for sea lice to grow next to the harmed salmon farms. The treatments to fish, the location to which other species are used to combat the issue, and the attempt to get a better net-pen can be a tedious route, however, will be more beneficial to the overall problem in a more long term approach than chemicals would be.
Authors:
Sabrina Sherman, Graphic Design 25'
Ryan Jones, Marketing '25
Meadow Vieira, Criminal Justice '26
Nicholas Oakes, International Business/Political Science '24
Works Cited
Abolofia, J. (2017). The Cost of Lice: Quantifying the Impacts of Parasitic Sea Lice on Farmed Salmon. Marine Resource Economics. https://doi.org/0738-1360/2017/3203-0006$10.00
Achlim, Y. (2021, December 6). Environmental Impact of Salmon Farming. One Green Planet. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/environmental-impact-of-salmon-farming/
Butler, S. (2017, January 13). Salmon retail prices set to leap owing to infestations of sea lice. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/13/price-of-salmon-leaps-50-as-sea-lice-epidemic-worsens
dfg.webmaster@alaska.gov. (n.d.). What Are Sea Lice?, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=388
(d_kurban), D. K. (2020, November 10). Former analyst promoted to acting CEO role at closed-containment salmon farming company. IntraFish.Com | Latest Seafood, Aquaculture and Fisheries News. https://www.intrafish.com/people/former-analyst-promoted-to-acting-ceo-role-at-closed-containment-salmon-farming-company/2-1-909941
Error 500. (n.d.). WebMD. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.webmd.com/diet/difference-between-wild-and-farmed-salmon.
Kreitzman, M. (n.d.). Figure 2: Global trends in sea lice resistance and wild salmon... ResearchGate. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-trends-in-sea-lice-resistance-and-wild-salmon-abundance-a-Locations-of_fig2_318551064
Laje, D. (2019, November 18). Are Chile’s industrial salmon farms changing the seas? Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/11/18/are-chiles-industrial-salmon-farms-changing-the-seas/
Paramita, C. (2021, June 24). Sustainable Salmon Farming: Is it Possible? Alaskan Salmon Company. https://aksalmonco.com/blogs/learn/sustainable-salmon-farming
Philipp, J. (2020, June 6). Salmon Farming in Chile: The Ugly Truth. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/salmon-farming-in-chile/
(r_mutter), R. M. (2020, February 10). Chile enters 2020 with highest sealice level in eight years. IntraFish.Com | Latest Seafood, Aquaculture and Fisheries News. https://www.intrafish.com/salmon/chile-enters-2020-with-highest-sealice-level-in-eight-years/2-1-753059
The problem of sea lice in salmon farms. (n.d.). Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-problem-of-sea-lice-in-salmon-farms.html
The sticky problem of sea lice – and what’s being done to stop them. (2019, September 30). SeafoodSource. https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/aquaculture/the-sticky-problem-of-sea-lice-and-what-s-being-done-to-stop-them