Coho salmon productivity in relation to salmon lice from infected prey and salmon farms.
Abstract
Pathogen transmission from open net-pen aquaculture facilities can depress sympatric wild fish populations. However, little is known about the effects of pathogen transmission from farmed fish on species interactions or other ecosystem components. Coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch smolts are susceptible hosts to the parasitic salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis as well as a primary predator of juvenile pink Oncorhynchus gorbuscha salmon, a major host species for lice. We used a hierarchical model of stock-recruit dynamics to compare coho salmon population dynamics across a region that varies in salmon louse infestation of juvenile coho and their pink salmon prey. During a period of recurring salmon louse infestations in a region of open net-pen salmon farms, coho salmon productivity (recruits per spawner at low spawner abundance) was depressed approximately sevenfold relative to unexposed populations. Alternate hypotheses for the observed difference in productivity, such as declines in coho prey, perturbations to freshwater habitat or stochasticity, are unlikely to explain this pattern. Lice parasitizing juvenile coho salmon were likely to be trophically transmitted during predation on parasitized juvenile pink salmon as well as directly transmitted from salmon farms. Synthesis and applications. The finding that species interactions may cause the effects of pathogen transmission from farmed to wild fish to propagate up a marine food web has important conservation implications: (i) the management of salmon aquaculture should consider and account for species interactions and the potential for these interactions to intensify pathogen transmission from farmed to wild fish, (ii) the ecosystem impact of louse transmission from farmed to wild salmon has likely to have been previously underestimated and (iii) comprehensive monitoring of wild salmon and their population dynamics in areas of intensive salmon aquaculture should be a priority to determine if open net-pen salmon aquaculture is ecologically sustainable.