quote:Originally posted by ratherbefishing
Something else to think about with respect to the farming of Atlantic salmon (my opinion)...
The broodstock used to farm Atlantics have been selected over a number of generations to support fish that grow quickly, tolerate high densities, disease resistance etc.. If you wanted to farm Pacific salmon, you would likely select strains as you would for Atlantics (growth, disease resistance etc...). If an Atlantic escapes it cannot spawn with a Pacific salmon BUT (and I think this is a KEY ISSUE), if you have a release of farmed Pacific they could spawn with wild Pacifics. To me, this would result in what I would consider to be significant genetic 'pollution'. What makes a fish 'wild' and what makes certain fish do better in some rivers than others would be gone.
Yes, Atlantics have been found to reproduce in the 'wild' on the Pacific but I would suggest that the number of those fish is so insignificant in the grand scheme that it is almost a non issue. That said, I do not think we should be tolerating escapees for any reason as it is just bad practice.
If you want to talk about devastation of indigenous stocks from introduced species, lets talk oysters...