LICE-NSED TO KILL Parasitic sea lice are invading salmon and trout farms, feasting on the skin and blood of captive fish. Viva! took to the streets to warn fish-eaters that some lice might still be attached to their purchases. Campaigner Alice Short reports
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hroughout April, we headed to five different cities to warn the British public what’s really eating the fish they’re eating – sea lice. We travelled to Stoke-on-Trent, Sheffield, Nottingham, Exeter and Cardiff armed with a giant sea louse and some amazing vegan fish alternatives, kindly provided by Future Farm, with the aim of shocking the public and showing how delicious alternatives are! Over the last 50 years, global production of sea food has more than quadrupled and as a result, wild fish populations have suffered. In 2017, over a third of the world's fish stocks were reported as overfished compared to 10 per cent in 1974.
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To combat the dwindling supply of the world’s ‘natural resources’ the seafood industry has come up with a so-called solution – aquaculture. Aquaculture, put simply, is underwater intensive factory farming. Fish are held captive and cramped together in filthy sea cages in their thousands. As they are often fed wild fish, this adds to the pressure on wild fish populations rather than supposedly reducing it. For salmon and trout, this means they are cruelly robbed of their natural journey from sea water to fresh water to spawn. In the wild, sea lice attach themselves to salmon and trout whilst at sea but are dislodged when the fish enter fresh water where the lice are unable to survive. Factory farms in sea water provide the perfect environment for lice to rampantly reproduce, infesting captive salmon and trout to gorge on their skin, literally eating them alive. Our new sea lice video shows the natural journey of a salmon, highlights just how much intensive fish farming has disrupted the life of these magnificent creatures and the threat sea lice pose to the fish themselves and surrounding populations of fish. Infestations of sea lice are contributing to the rapid decline of the majestic wild salmon. Few of the public were even aware that sea lice exist let alone that they are feasting on their fish dinners before they make it to the supermarket. After watching the footage from our fish investigation they squirmed with revulsion. Henry from Sheffield was horrified and said it has “put me off eating fish for life”. Our video also shows the range of treatments introduced by the fish farming industry. These include chemicals, hot water baths, freshwater jets and the introduction of cleaner fish who eat the lice directly from the fishes skin. Each one poses different ethical and environmental concerns.
Left: shoppers enjoying ‘Tvna’ samples in Nottingham
