December 14, 2018 — UK aquaculture biotechnology company Benchmark is working on a series of tools to combat the salmon industry’s growing sea lice problem, said CEO Malcolm Pye.

No single solution will work in isolation, he said, in an interview with Undercurrent News.

There are some signs that Norwegian salmon farmers are beginning to manage a sea lice problem that escalated this year, fisheries minister Harald Nesvik said last month. Sea lice levels have dropped on a combination of cold weather and methods that farmers are using, including delousing baths, cleaner-fish that feed off sea lice and even laser treatment.

Sea lice costs the Norwegian industry more than NOK 4.5 billion ($524.7 million) a year without even taking into the account reduced harvest weights, according to Norwegian seafood research institute Nofima. In a particularly bad year for Norway, farmers harvested fish below an average of 5 kilograms, compared with Chile that harvested an average of 5.5 kilograms. Larger fish command a premium in some markets such as China and Russia.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News