Chile tightens sea lice controls

CHILE’S Secretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca) announced new sea lice regulations last month, following higher parasite levels in two farming regions in July.

The modifications are aimed at encouraging farms with high levels of lice to reduce their biomass until conditions improve, and to use non-medical treatments.

The increase in sea lice at salmon farms in the Aysen and Los Lagos farming regions is due to oceanographic and environmental conditions and the lower efficacy of the treatments currently used by the aquaculture industry, Subpesca said.

The revised rules involve volume of treatments and the frequency of treatments per site.

Those sites falling into the high dissemination category three times in a row will have to submit a voluntary harvesting plan to reduce their biomass by at least 25 per cent within 21 days.

When the lice reduction plan works, the site will be taken off the high monitoring list.