Sea Lice?

Hi, the sea trout i got today was coverd in lice and i didnt know whether i should remove them or not.

the question is, should i remove them or is it not safe to?

Thanks.

dont know alex, but i do know that when the sea trout enter fresh water the sea lice die and fall off

Not 100% on this, if there are only a few I'll not bother but just try and put the fish back in the water as soon as possible. If the infestation is fairly heavy I'll remove some but again bearing in mind that I want to put it back in the water as soon as possible.

Its worth keeping a record of the amount of lice you see on any sea trout your catching, after a few years that kind of data can be quite useful. I'm sure its the kind of stuff that layabout Bradan would be interested in too.

Thanks for the compliment Pete! :P

I personally don't think there's any point removing lice - if there are only a couple they won't have much impact on the fish, that would be a normal level. If its a heavy infestation its because for some reason there are lots of lice larvae in the water - if you remove them they will very quickly be re-infested.
Usual reason for heavy infestation is a nearby salmon farm not adhering to statutory lice levels i.e. not treating their fish when lice levels get high, so the farms are pumping out billions of larvae to infect salmonid fish swimming in the local area.
Of course the fish farmers would say this is all my own opinion and can't be backed up with scientific evidence - after almost 20 years of study and dozens of published research papers they still won't accept responsibility :roll:

(must be just a coincidence that the arrival of fish farming in Connemara happened just before sea trout stocks collapsed!)