A salmon farming company's illegal use last summer of a pesticide to treat for sea lice at Head Harbour, Campobello, has angered fishermen, who are also upset with how small the fine was for the infraction. On May 15 in Saint John Provincial Court, Northern Harvest Sea Farms admitted to using Salmosan without approval at the site last July, in violation of New Brunswick's Pesticides Control Act, and was fined $12,000.
     Maria Recchia, executive director of the Fundy North Fishermen's Association, says the fine was "a slap on the wrist" and thus can simply become the cost of doing business for salmon farming companies. Because of concerns that the pesticide can be toxic to lobsters, with over $1 million worth of lobsters at just one of the nearby lobster holding facilities in Head Harbour, she says that fishermen "are feeling like the province is putting their industry at risk and giving preferential treatment to the aquaculture industry." She adds, "We need to coexist, and we need to figure out how to do that."
     According to Recchia, the Head Harbour salmon pens had not been used for perhaps a decade, and Campobello fishermen did not know they were going to be used again until they saw cages being built in March of last year. Northern Harvest placed salmon in two sites: one within one kilometre of lobster holding facilities at Head Harbour and one that is more than a kilometre away from them.
     Fundy North arranged a meeting on Campobello with provincial departments and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to discuss fishermen's concerns about the salmon farms. Authorities stated that during the first year no bath treatments for sea lice were expected at either site, since young salmon are treated with the pesticide in the feed. For the site that it less than a kilometre from lobster holding facilities, fishermen were told that pesticide treatments would not be used there.
     Recchia says that research has shown that Salmosan affects lobster being held. "For years pound owners have been saying that where aquaculture sites are close to lobster pounds the shrinkage rates are high," meaning the lobsters were dying in the pounds, and also lobsters were dying during shipment. A rule was then developed that Salmosan could not be used within one kilometre of a lobster holding site. At any site, Salmosan can only be used with prior regulatory approval.
     Northern Harvest had applied to use Salmosan at the Head Harbour sites, and its use at the site farther than one kilometre was legal, but it also was used at the closer site on July 26 without permission.
     Recchia points out that July "is prime lobster holding time," and she notes that one facility at Head Harbour had at least $1 million worth of lobsters at the time. She notes that lobsters are held in different holding facilities for most of the year, with perhaps the period during September and October being the only time when they are not. Because salmon farmers need to treat sites for sea lice, she feels it was irresponsible for the Head Harbour site to be approved for raising salmon, as it places the lobster industry in a risky position.
     Campobello residents had been concerned since March 2017 about the issue, and Recchia notes that the incident could have been worse, as those fishermen who were holding lobsters had noticed the pesticide treatments were happening and took precautions, shutting off their pumps to limit the water flow. "It they hadn't done that, they could have had significant losses."
     Fundy North has requested another meeting on Campobello to discuss the issue with federal and provincial authorities but has not heard any response yet.

Challenges faced by fish farmers
     This is not the first time that salmon farming companies have been fined for illegal use of pesticides for treating sea lice. In 2013, a Cooke Aquaculture subsidiary, Kelly Cove Salmon, agreed to pay $500,000, one of the largest penalties ever levied in Canada under the Fisheries Act, for using a pesticide, cypermethrin, that is illegal to use in the marine environment in Canada and resulted in the deaths of lobsters off Grand Manan and Deer Island. It was used at 15 aquaculture sites and is known to be toxic to lobsters. However, it was permitted for use under certain restrictions to treat for sea lice at salmon farms in Maine.
     Concerning the challenges faced by salmon farmers in dealing with the sea lice issue, Susan Farquharson, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, comments, "Managing sea lice is complex; farmers must deal with a wide range of biological and environmental factors including water temperatures and salinity in addition to the various life stages of the lice. Farmers rely on an integrated pest management approach because using one method to control sea lice simply does not work. It combines preventative farming practises like fish husbandry, single-year-class stocking on a farm, fallowing and low stocking densities. Approved treatments are used only when necessary."
     She adds, "Our industry is constantly evolving and our farmers continue to invest millions of dollars into research and development of alternative green technologies that include warm water baths, nutrition advancement, lice‑eating cleaner fish and broodstock development."
While aquaculture companies have been publicizing their use of green technologies, instead of pesticides, for sea lice treatments, with Cooke Aquaculture just announcing its use of a warm-water bath as part of its complement of green sea lice treatment options, Recchia says that the "vast majority are pesticide treatments. We have to find a solution away from pesticides. In an area where the crustacean fishery is so important to the local economy and communities, it's not appropriate to use something that kills crustaceans."

Toxicity studies
     According to Recchia, one study on the toxicity of Salmosan to crustaceans took lobsters that had been exposed to Salmosan and shipped them by truck, finding that perhaps a third died during transport and attributing the high mortality rate to the pesticide exposure.
     However, another study on the use of Salmosan, published in 1999 by the National Institutes of Health in the U.S., found that "single anti-louse treatments are unlikely to result in mortality among lobsters in the vicinity of salmon farms."
     Concerning the toxicity of pesticides like Salmosan, Farquharson comments, "All treatment products including Salmosan undergo extensive risk assessments by Health Canada to ensure they are safe for salmon and other species, the environment and human health. Extensive lab and field research and monitoring have been conducted around the world and also in Canada on this treatment. Salmosan has been used for many years in other jurisdictions such as Norway and Scotland. It's been approved for use in New Brunswick since 1995."
     Deborah Bouchard, director of the Aquaculture Research Institute at the University of Maine, says that Salmosan had been investigated for use in Maine under Food and Drug Administration requirements for investigative new animal drugs, which would have allowed its use under veterinary controls. However, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) never authorized its use. "Part of the problem is the DEP looked at past literature," and one Canadian study had indicated an effect on adult lobsters. The DEP wanted more studies concerning dilution factors and the effect on non-target species like lobsters. Bouchard says part of the problem with the Canadian study is that there were no controls on the dosing and the researchers were exposing the lobsters to higher doses than they would be exposed to in the wild.
     "It's true that Salmosan could be harmful to lobsters, but only if they were exposed to high doses," says Bouchard. She notes that the active compound in Salmosan, azamethiphos, "starts breaking down before we even put it in the water. That's part of the reason for why there's only a 24-hour withdrawal time" when salmon receive Salmosan treatments.