The pesticides are used periodically, it's my understanding that they were not only used once and never again.
Perhaps migration routes of Pink and Sockeye salmon differ. Perhaps their migration timing is different. People assume the system is static, when in reality the only static thing about it is that it changes. Parasites likely follow near exponential growth. The carrying capacity is so high due to the close-proximity and numerous farmed Salmon that they never hit it. This means to control their numbers they have to use pesticides, which are prone to becoming resisted after iterative treatments due to us selecting for those parasites more able to metabolize/avoid it. This is not a solution, it's buying time until we have to use more harmful pesticides that may damage the ecosystem even more. What we need is closed containment facilities. There has been some interesting research done on the environmental costs of putting these things on land/using a closed bag system. They say that greenhouse gas production goes up, and it's remarkably costly in terms of energy to have these things operational especially on land. The closed-bag system seems the most feasible to me.
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Topic: Pink Salmon Returns to BC (Read 13129 times)