Sea lice infestation dataset for wild and farmed salmon populations on the Pacific coast of Canada (2001-2023)

There are six files associated with this dataset around farmed and wild salmon in British Columbia, Canada covering data from 2001 to 2023. Two of the files relate to sea lice observations on wild fish and four relate to sampling for sea lice abundance on Atlantic salmon farms.

[all_wild_sample_events.csv] – Description of data fields associated with each wild sampling event; each row represents a field sampling event and includes the date and location of each observation and the observation programme (“Source”) under which each event was carried out.

[all_wild_fish_lice.csv] – Description of data fields associated with each wild fish that was assessed for sea louse infestation; each row representing a single fish and in addition to the 12 fields that are used to record sea lice presence according to various species and stages of life cycle development, the host species and physical characteristics are noted, as well as a reference field (“Event_ID”) to link each wild fish record to the field event during which it was sampled.

[industry_farm_details] - Description of data fields associated with each Atlantic salmon farm operating on the BC coast; each row representing a different farm from which sea lice observations have been included and includes the farm’s name, location and the aquaculture company responsible for that site.

[industry_farm_abundance] - Description of data fields associated with the mean monthly sea lice abundance estimates reported from each farm; each row represents a single monthly farm record and includes the sampling year and month, together with four columns providing mean sea louse abundance values and the number of sampled fish from which these means were generated, as well as a field indicating the ‘weighting’ that should be given to this monthly value when estimating zonal averages, based on the proportional number of fish present on that farm compared to the whole zone.

[industry_zone_loads_median] - Description of data fields associated with the estimated median monthly sea lice ‘load’ associated with each DFO fish health zone. Each row contains information on the zone, sampling year and month, with the four sea lice columns representing the median total load of each species/stage recorded, where each farm’s load is estimated based on the monthly mean abundance on that farm multiplied by the estimated number of fish present on that farm during the month under consideration.

[DFO_farm_abundance] - Description of data fields associated with mean sea lice abundance estimates reported to DFO by BC operators; each row represents a single farm record and includes the year, month, and typically day of sampling, together with four columns providing mean sea louse abundance values and the number of sampled fish from which these means were generated. (This is very similar to data in the [industry- _farm_abundance] table, but provides average values over a more highly resolved time-frame. Hpwever, these data are only available from 2011 and do not contain any values to allow for the generation of weighted means.)