Evaluation of a national operational salmon lice monitoring system-From physics to fish

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 31;13(7):e0201338. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201338. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The Norwegian government has decided that the aquaculture industry shall grow, provided that the growth is environmentally sustainable. Sustainability is scored based on the mortality of wild salmonids caused by the parasitic salmon lice. Salmon lice infestation pressure has traditionally been monitored through catching wild sea trout and Arctic char using nets or traps or by trawling after Atlantic salmon postsmolts. However, due to that the Norwegian mainland coastline is nearly 25 000 km, complementary methods that may be used in order to give complete results are needed. We have therefore developed an operational salmon lice model, which calculates the infestation pressure all along the coast in near real-time based on a hydrodynamical ocean model and a salmon lice particle tracking model. The hydrodynamic model generally shows a negative temperature bias and a positive salinity bias compared to observations. The modeled salmon lice dispersion correlates with measured lice on wild salmonids caught using traps or nets. This allows for using two complementary data sources in order to determine the infestation pressure of lice originating from fish farms on wild salmonids, and thereby provide an improved monitoring system for assessing risk and sustainability which forms the basis for knowledge-based advice to management authorities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Copepoda*
  • Epidemiological Monitoring*
  • Fish Diseases* / epidemiology
  • Fish Diseases* / parasitology
  • Fish Diseases* / prevention & control
  • Fish Diseases* / transmission
  • Models, Biological*
  • Norway
  • Salmo salar / parasitology*

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Norwegian Research Council through the project ‘Regional lice assessment, Reglice’, project number 244439 and by internal funding from the Institute of Marine Research (project no. 14650). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.