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WASHINGTON (AP) - Salmon farms help stock supermarkets but also breed parasitic sea lice that infect young wild salmon and could endanger other important ocean species such as herring, scientists said Tuesday.
Even a single farm can have far-reaching effects, Canadian researchers Martin Krkosek, Mark Lewis and John Volpe found. The study adds fuel to the clamor over farmed versus wild salmon, a debate that extends along Pacific Northwest coastlines.
"We know that the lice do infect other species," said Krkosek, a University of Alberta mathematical biologist. "The transmission from farmed fish to wild fish is much larger than what was previously believed."
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