Blog Archives
Landmark collaborative sea lice study published
Salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago, part of a landmark new research study involving industry, government, and ENGO scientists.
A landmark study was published earlier this month which will likely be overlooked by… pretty much everyone.
But we think it deserves as much media attention as it can get.
The study, titled “Modeling Parasite Dynamics on Farmed Salmon for Precautionary Conservation Management of Wild Salmon,” does have any radical new conclusions. It’s good, sound science that suggests that treating farmed salmon for sea lice in January or February minimizes risks the parasites may pose to juvenile wild salmon during their spring outmigration.
Adapting the management of parasites on farmed salmon according to migrations of wild salmon may therefore provide a precautionary approach to conserving wild salmon populations in salmon farming regions,” it concludes.
Looks like a wise, prudent conclusion. Why are there no ENGOs and activists howling at the moon over this?
Especially given who’s on the author list? The author list is the real landmark part of this study. It includes:
- Martin Krkošek, whose mathematical modelling study and work with Alexandra Morton nearly a decade ago sparked a decade of outrage against salmon farms because of fears of sea lice.
- Stephanie Peacock, who has worked with Krkošek on previous papers.
- Simon Jones, DFO scientist and author of several seminal papers on sea lice.
- Crawford Revie, one of Canada’s top scientists and professor at Atlantic Veterinary College.
- Peter McKenzie, vet at Mainstream Canada.
- Sharon DeDominicus, vet at Marine Harvest Canada.
It’s fantastic that all these people were able to work together, despite their diverse background and history.
This is a shining example of collaborative research, and what can be done when people put aside their ideology and put science first.
Alexandra Morton rewrites her own history
It seems Alexandra Morton, embarrassed by a particularly stupid comment she made back in February, has deleted the post from her blog and is now pretending she never said it.
Morton is technically correct. The words “in quotes” were not hers. What she actually said was:
… While the governments of British Columbia and Canada turn a blind-eye, I believe the Norwegian salmon feedlots operating in BC are perpetrating one of the greatest threats known to the living world. Turning feedlot viruses from the Atlantic Ocean loose into the Pacific is damage that might not ever be repaired.
She may try and deny she ever said this, but even though she has deleted the original post from her blog, (which was found at the following URL: http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2013/02/voice-to-salmon.html ), the link still shows up in a Google search (see the eighth result).
This is what it looks like in the Google search results:
Is Morton trying to rewrite her own history now, and pretend she never said this? Her behaviour smacks of dishonesty and an inability to admit when she makes a mistake.
Which is nothing new, we’ve seen her do this when she makes rather large scientific boo-boos, like calling henneguya kudoa and never admitting she was wrong.
Why did she delete the blog post?
UPDATE: 4:06 p.m. 10/04/2013
A sharp-eyed reader found that Morton’s original blog post was reposted by the Gorilla Radio blog, and is still available online in its entirety. Read it for yourself. We have also now archived a PDF copy for posterity.
