--- title: Salmon Price Spikes Due to Sea Lice in Salmon Farms description: The price of salmon across the globe has surged in recent months following widespread contamination by a tiny pest known as sea lice canonical: https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-23T19:32:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:42.804Z article:section: Health og:title: Salmon Price Spikes Due to Sea Lice in Salmon Farms og:description: The price of salmon across the globe has surged in recent months following widespread contamination by a tiny pest known as sea lice og:url: https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92636bf2a8230bfc/6988b6c1cd1bba9341703b2d/salmon-prices.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5760 og:image:height: 3240 og:image:alt: salmon prices og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Salmon Price Spikes Due to Sea Lice in Salmon Farms twitter:description: The price of salmon across the globe has surged in recent months following widespread contamination by a tiny pest known as sea lice twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92636bf2a8230bfc/6988b6c1cd1bba9341703b2d/salmon-prices.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Your Salmon Is About to Get Very Expensive > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: 10 Slimming Foods to Eat If You Sit All Day [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Slimming Foods to Eat If You Sit All Day](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Yv3put4p.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2016-10-21. Add these recommended foods that follow into your diet to help ease some of the damage of your 9-to-5 and you’ll be on your way to a leaner, healthier you._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 23, 2017 7:32 PM UTC  Salmon in Kensington Market in Toronto in 2015 Salmon in Kensington Market in Toronto in 2015 Marta Iwanek—Toronto Star via Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 23, 2017 7:32 PM UTC The price of salmon across the globe has surged following widespread contamination by a tiny pest known as sea lice that eat salmon’s blood and skin. The price of salmon has climbed more than 15% in the last three months, according to [data](https://salmonprice.nasdaqomxtrader.com/public/report;jsessionid=5D4FA241FF3C7503251B2D78AFF43B54?0) from the NASDAQ Salmon Index. Norwegian salmon prices [jumped](http://en.seafood.no/News-and-media/News-archive/Press-releases/Salmon-and-trout-exports-treble-in-3-years-%E2%80%93-NOK-65-billion-in-2016) 40% in 2016 from the previous year. Unusually high salmon prices are likely to remain throughout this year given the time it takes for fish to grow to an appropriate size, according to a _Financial Times_ [report](https://www.ft.com/content/ff231b54-d73a-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e). **Read More:** [The Growing Fight Against Food Fraud](http://time.com/4623413/growing-fight-food-fraud/) Sea lice are nothing new, but their effect has grown more widespread alongside the rise of large salmon farms. The farms—essentially large-scaled netted areas in the ocean—act as a [fertile breeding ground](http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view%5Farticle&articles%5Fid=388) for sea lice because the closely confined space allows the parasite to spread quickly. The problem has also affected wild salmon as they move nearby the farms. Researchers also [found](http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0122) that high water temperatures—largely due to man-made climate change—likely contributed to the problem. **Read More:** [Average American Seafood Intake Increased by a Pound Last Year](http://time.com/4546751/seafood-sustainability-fish/) Experts say that an algal bloom off the coast of Chile last year that killed more than 135,000 tons of salmon has also contributed to the price spike. Salmon producers have largely used pesticides to try to eliminate the problem, but some strands of sea lice have grown immune to the problem. Salmons farmers, who have lost millions thanks to sea lice, have invested heavily in developing farms where the pest cannot thrive. One $71 million [project](http://advocate.gaalliance.org/chem-free-fixes-emerging-in-sea-lice-saga/) from the Norwegian company Nordlaks aims to help fish avoid tight confines at a length of nearly five football fields. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/"},"headline":"Why Your Salmon Is About to Get Very Expensive","datePublished":"2017-01-23T19:32:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:42.804Z","description":"It's gross","url":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92636bf2a8230bfc/6988b6c1cd1bba9341703b2d/salmon-prices.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt92636bf2a8230bfc/6988b6c1cd1bba9341703b2d/salmon-prices.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"salmon prices","caption":"salmon prices","creditText":"Marta Iwanek—Toronto Star via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/","name":"Why Your Salmon Is About to Get Very Expensive"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Slimming Foods to Eat If You Sit All Day","description":"Add these recommended foods that follow into your diet to help ease some of the damage of your 9-to-5 and you’ll be on your way to a leaner, healthier you.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Yv3put4p/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-21T17:46:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Yv3put4p.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4643134/salmon-prices-lice/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```