Over 60 sites with high abundance of sea lice in Chile

Christian Pérez Between the fourth and tenth week of this year, 61 farming sites have been reported as with an average abundance of adult lice (Caligus rogercresseyi) per fish equal or higher than 9 parasites per fish according to the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Sernapesca). That means that about 10 percent of all farms are in this condition, considering that there are around 600 salmon farming sites in operation in Chile. These sites with high abundances, known as Sites of Large Spread or CAD, are located exclusively in the regions of Aysén (51 sites) and Los Lagos (10). From the 61 total CAD in Chile, only 9 sites were farming Rainbow trout, while the rest was stocked with Atlantic salmon. Meanwhile, just two CAD were being harvested, while the other 59 sites were in the process of fattening fish. In terms of companies, AquaChile is the salmon producing company with most CAD in the period with 17 sites and followed by Multiexport, Pesquera Los Fiordos and Australis Seafoods with 8 CAD each one. According to the new sanitary programme of control and surveillance of Caligus, if a farming site is not able to reduce the abundance of sea lice below 9 adult lice per fish within 6 weeks after notification, there will be a mandatory elimination of 25% of the biomass in that site.