Sea lice levels are higher near salmon farms

There have been calls for the Department of Agriculture to boost its monitoring of fish farms after new research showed sea trout carry significantly higher levels of sea lice infestation when closer to marine salmon farms.

Inland Fisheries Ireland said it hoped any future applications for fish farms should take note of the findings of the research, which analysed sea lice levels over 25 years from more than 20,000 sea trout.

The sea trout were sampled from 94 separate river and lake systems in Ireland and Scotland at varying distances from salmon farms and one of the authors of the report, Dr Paddy Gargan, said the findings were the culmination of 25 years of study.