Marine Institute defends research on sealice
Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Oranmore-based Marine Institute has moved to defend a study it carried out on the role of sea lice on migrating salmon.
It follows a call from An Taisce to have the report withdrawn due to what it describes as 'fundamental errors' in its research.
The study presents an analysis of a 9-year dataset from eight locations along Ireland's west and south coast to determine the impact of sea lice on migrating salmon.
It concludes that while sea lice-induced mortality on outwardly migrating salmon can be significant, it is a minor and irregular component of marine mortality in the stocks studied and is unlikely to be a significant factor influencing conservation status of salmon stocks.
However an Taisce now refers to a newly-released paper by the University of Toronto's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology which questions the methodology used within the Marine Institute report.
It argues that data differences from year to year were not treated appropriately and that averages regarding the survival of fish were used incorrectly.
The Marine Institue says that the study referred to is a scientific paper published in the Journal of Fish Diseases.
It also stresses it is not connected to the BIM proposal for a fish farm in Galway Bay.
The Marine Institute concludes that it will consider the US paper and if appropriate will issue a response through a peer-reviewed scientific process.