Chile’s Secretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca) announced modifications to the country’s sea lice control program. The move was prompted by an increase in lice levels in the Aysen and Los Lagos farming regions during July.

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

The modifications are aimed at encouraging those centers with high levels of lice, those placed on the high monitoring or control list, to reduce their biomass in a short period of time in order to improve conditions at the site, and to encourage companies to use non-medical treatments.

As part of the amendments to the program, Subpesca modified the definition of high-risk centers, and replaced certain rules, including the requirements for the use of anti-parasitic treatments, the volume of treatments and the frequency of treatments allowed per site.

In addition, the rules included a new clause by which anti-parasitic treatments for juvenile salmon could be applied in separate windows of time in neighborhoods (groups of concessions in a particular location), provided they have a strategy for high monitoring of the treatment.

Based on the new requirements, those sites falling into the high dissemination category three times in a row will be able to submit a voluntary harvesting plan to reduce their biomass by at least 25 percent within 21 days.

When the lice reduction plan works and environmental conditions at the site improve after the treatment, the site will be taken off the high monitoring list. However, those centers still showing high levels of lice after the plan has been implemented will have a chance to harvest salmon biomass early.

The new program also incorporates new rules for the use of non-pharmacological treatments. For example, non-medical treatments and treatments with hydrogen peroxide will not have to be provided within the official window authorized for the neighborhood.

Aquaculture

Chilean regulator lays out new sea lice control program