AFP/File Photo
Posted on 06/04/2003 7:16:58 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) - Farmed salmon are a bigger risk to wild species than previously thought, according to a study which says young captive fish that escape their pens beat their native counterparts at the mating game.
Salmon farms are a thriving industry in Canada, Chile, Ireland, Norway and Scotland but biologists have long feared that the native gene pool could be destroyed if too many penned fish escape their confinement and inter-breed with wild fish.
Until now, those fears have been dampened by findings that escapees are less successful at reproducing than native fish.
But a new study says the picture is more complex, the British weekly New Scientist reports in its forthcoming June 7 issue.
Farmed salmon may be less fertile than wild fish but young males among them more than make up for it. Their early sexual maturity and aggressiveness enables them to sneak in front of larger wild fish to fertilise the female's eggs.
Experiments conducted on farmed, wild and hybrid species of Norwegian salmon by Oxford University scientist Dany Garant and colleagues found that farmed yearlings were four times as successful as wild ones at fertilising eggs.
Even the hybrids were twice as good at it as their wild rivals.
Given the faster life cycles of farmed salmon, these young fish could very quickly spread their genes through wild populations, says Garant's study, published in a specialist journal, Ecology Letters.
William Muir, an expert on farmed and transgenic fish at Purdue University in the US state of Indiana, told New Scientist that the study shed "incredibly important" light on the dilemma of farmed fish.
"(Escapees) could swamp the gene pools with maladapted genes and quickly cause extinction of wild fish," he warned.
Seven countries that have big salmon farming industries signed an agreement in 1994 aimed at minimising the impact of fish farming in the North Atlantic.
But the measures set out in the accord are only voluntary guidelines and do not hold countries accountable for damage wrought by escaped fish.
Escapees are a major problem, said Garant. "In Norway, some rivers are completely invaded by farmed fish."
I challenge anybody to tell me with a straight face, that the farmed variety tasted better than wild copper river salmon.
It's not that one thing in particular makes the animal/fish taste better, it is the variety in the diet.
It is cheaper to buy one item at massive bulk discount rates, than to feed smaller portions of a varied diet.
Try Kobe beef, then try feed lot raised beef. Report back to me. *grin*
,,, it doesn't.
You have it my friend, the whole thing is that farm raised is going cut into someone's profits.
When served with wasabi and ginger, it could be cardboard for all that matters.
I find quite entertaining to hear that "farmed salmon", who had 3 squares a day, every day, are sexually more successful than the "wild salmon" who went without food from time to time, or were maybe even scared by the big sharks they met out in the Deep.
Look salmon is salmon unless it's salmon with sour cream. The "domesticated salmon" are a handful of generations away from being "wild salmon" themselves. That's not enough time to turn them white and docile, and certainly not enough for them to look back at their master for help in finding a frizzbee lost in the woods!
Skip the ginger and wasabi btw. Just straight sashimi battle. Copper River vs alfalfa fed salmon. There is a difference. Big time.
At that time the premier salmon were all WHITE. Now, the premier salmon are all ORANGE.
I would recommend that you quit looking at the Salmon and start eating them, white, orange, red, pink, even "brown", as rapidly and as often as possible. Best deal with salmon is that it is chock full of Omega-3 fatty acides AND it tastes good ~ all of it tastes good ~ like Bing Cherries ~ ain't no such thing as a bad bing, eh?!
I don't know if farm raised salmon have apha omega 3 fatty acids or not. For wild salmon, it comes from the algae they eat. Do farm raised salmon have it in their diet? I am not saying that they do or they do not, I do not know. Furthermore, anyone I have ever asked has not given me a credible answer
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
The eggs that hatch into hatchery salmon are wild eggs. The sperm that fertilizes them is wild sperm. THEY DO NOT BREED CAPTIVE SALMON!!!
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