Mail from Alex Morton - Herring with lice !!!

Herring with lice

I took these pictures on the evening of July 18 off a dock near northern Vancouver Island. If you look closely you will see there are sea lice on a lot of them. Sea lice on herring this small (they are about 4cm long) were never reported before salmon farms arrived. These lice appear to be Caligus, which are also found on farm salmon. There were thousands of herring, all of which are very young. For there to be this many lice, these little herring must have passed through an area with a lot of adult lice.

My guess is salmon feedlots. The lice are the light brown shapes with the "tails" which are egg strings.

(click on these pic's for a larger view)

Our fisheries are in big trouble under current management.  Please consider attending or sending your own representatives to the aquaculture hearings at the Cohen Inquiry in Vancouver August 22 - September 9.  My concern is that the proceedings will be unbelievable unless people hear it for themselves. I do not want to be your only source of information on this.

www.cohencommission.ca

Thank you all who donated, you are keeping us going for the next couple of months.  If you want to help out:

Pay Pal via www.salmonaresacred.org

or

Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society
Box 399
Sointula, BC V0N 3E0

Consider joining our 100,000 voices for wild salmon www.salmonaresacred.org

Alex Morton