Vampire Lice No News To Svalbard

Fishermen in the Aegan Sea have major problems with a subwater scavenger that is well known in Svalbard, according to Svalbardposten.

Turish fishermen see their fish scavenged after only 3-4 hours of being caught in the nets. They refer to the scavenger as ‘vampire lice’. However, professor Jørgen Berge at UNIS and UiT says this is a species well known in the Arctic.

The scavenger is a carrion-eating lice usually living amongst seaweed, and it is between 0.5 and three centimeters long. They enter their victim through the mouth, the gills or the eyes and they are very efficient.