Atlantic salmon escape

quote:Originally posted by salmonkiller01

Why don't they farm pacific salmon(springs, coho...) ?
im not 100% on this but did they not introduce pacific salmon into the east coast, i was watching a fishing show and im sure they wewr saying they were catching pacific spring salmon in the great lakes, they looked healthy?
 
Chinooks do well in the great lakes and provide good sport fishing,
however they have not fared well in net pens when attempts were made to farm them.
 
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...
 
quote:Originally posted by Barbender

quote:Why don't they farm pacific salmon(springs, coho...) ?

They do but not very successfully. They are hard to domesticate and tend to be high strung and prone to stress. Atlantics on the other hand are quite happy swimming in circles.

We had one very successful operation farming Coho in Clam Bay, until Marine Harvest bought it and it was changed to Atlantics? That's a history and story in itself! Marine Harvest chose to concentrate their efforts on BC rather than WA! Marine Harvest didn't want to play here in the States. I love that decision! :)

Of course, you do know BC has a farm that appears very sucessful farming Chinook. Maybe they know something Marine Harvest doesn't? :)
http://www.creativesalmon.com/index.html

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...

Oysters? That very well could happen to salmon, especially if we keep messing with "Mother Nature"! You might find this an interesting read, note the "CONCLUSIONS REGARDING POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF ATLANTIC SALMON CULTURE IN PUGET SOUND". Keep in mind it is stated this study "only" applies to Puget Sound and "no where else" in the world!
http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/publications/techmemos/tm53/tm53.pdf
 
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