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CIL and the aquaculture industry PAGE 14&15
Where is Ireland’s marine leisure infrastructure? page 6
December 2013/January 2014 Vol 9 Issue 6
ONLINE EDITION
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Publisher apologises to Ireland’s Marine Institute for contentious sea-lice article Gery Flynn
A
controversial article in a prestigious science journal that accuses the Marine Institute of ‘incorrectly’ concluding that sea lice play a minor role in the survival of wild salmon, has been downgraded significantly by its publishers who have also apologised to the agency for denying it a right of reply prior to publication. This is the latest twist in what has been a highly charged debate involving some of Ireland’s environmental State Agencies
as well as the scientific community here and abroad. First published in August 2013 in the respected Journal of Fish Diseases, the article, written by a team of scientists led by Dr Martin Krkošek of the University of Toronto alleges that based on its own research, the Marine Institute incorrectly concluded ‘that sea lice play a minor, perhaps even negligible, role in salmon survival’. Krkošek further states that such a conclusion can be supported ‘only if one is prepared to accept at least three fundamental methodological errors’. And he claims that his team’s ‘re-analyses’ of the same data ‘departs substantially from those reported and interpreted’ by the Marine Institute.
‘Whereas they assert that sea lice cause 1% of mortality in Atlantic salmon, the correct estimate is actually a one-third loss of overall adult recruitment,’ he writes. ‘We acknowledge that few smolts survive to return in any wild salmon population and that recent declines in the survival of Irish Atlantic salmon cannot be solely explained by sea lice…… our purpose is to highlight that parasites can and, in this case, do have a large effect on fisheries recruitment… with important implications for the management and conservation of wild salmon stocks.’
Article reclassification
Now however, just four months after it first appeared in the Journal of Fish Diseases
as a ‘Short Communication’, the Krkošek article has been re-published by the same journal - but this time it has been re-classified, and effectively downgraded to the status of a ‘Comment’. Such a re-classification is highly significant in the scientific world due to the fact that ‘Comments’ are not subjected to the so-called peer review process where strict protocols are observed. For the results of a scientific investigation to be published in a credible scientific journal, it must first pass a rigorous obstacle course of assessment by a panel of experts employed to check for accuracy. The paper is then accepted
for publication, rejected outright, or returned to the author for further clarification or amendment. Significantly, the Journal of Fish Diseases notes that ‘Comments are not subject to the same level of peer review as Original Articles and Review Papers.’ The re-classified Krkošek article has a ‘Note from the Publisher’ stating that ‘due to a procedural error Dr Jackson [the senior scientist at the Marine Institute whose team Krkošek refers to] was not given the opportunity to reply to this Comment before it was published.’
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Minister Coveney warns of “exceptionally tough negotiations” at December EU Fisheries Council. Whitefish ports such a Union Hall, Co Cork, could be seriously impacted. Photo Gillian Mills