Salmon farm escapees threaten wild cousins-WWF

[leftchick]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1111733.htm

OSLO, May 12 (Reuters) - A quarter of salmon in seas off Norway are escapees from fish farms, threatening the survival of their wild cousins in a cautionary tale for fish farmers worldwide, the WWF conservation group said on Thursday.

"The wild races of salmon off Norway are threatened by escaped fish. We suspect this is an issue for every country where salmon are farmed," said Simon Cripps, director of the WWF's Global Marine Programme.

About half of all wild Atlantic salmon are born in Norwegian rivers, with lesser populations of the prized fish from Scotland to the United States. Fish farm breakouts in recent years are adding to threats ranging from pollution to dams.

"Around half a million farmed fish, both salmon and trout, escape from fish farms in Norway every year," Cripps told Reuters.

:(

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm curious how the fish launch their Great Escapes.

I'm curious in part because I keep hearing about this issue re: western North America.

[blindpig]

2. not sure

but those suckers can jump! Occasional enclosure failures are possible but I'd bet that a steady but small "leakage" of the fish from their enclosures is likely. Not enough to affect the "farmers" due to scale but causing a cumulative effect of these less survivable fish flooding the gene pool.

[The White Tree]

4. Here's a good link for information about the problem

Particularly in the Pacific Northwest

<http://www.watershed-watch.org/ww/salmon_farming.html>

They say much about the escapes is poorly understood, though they had a paragraph in one of the reports I glimpsed about "intentional" escapes (i.e. the deliberate release of a number of farmed animals into the environment.

[AnneD]

3. holy mackrel

we're headed for a smack down.....Since so much of our wild species are heading for extinction, this might be all the only way to populate...

[chlamor]

5. Interesting experiment in New Zealand

a few years back. Genetically engineered Chinook Salmon got to 550 lbs and wasn't done growing. They decided to kill the beast and pull the plug on experiment thankfully. Fish of Fear.

The Monkey's Paw