h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Atlantic Salmon are farmed on the West Coast of North America. This is highly contraversial since they have a habit of escaping and may compete with and spread disease to local varieties (which are good eating but don't seem to farm so well). It has become a huge "meeting" point for the environmental and pro-industrial lobbies.

John BC CAN

Interesting.

Why on earth do you think they transported salmon all the way from the East coast to the West just for the purposes of farming them?

B

Hi!
I live in norway, and I study aquaculture (fishfarming). You are right about the escaped salmon may spread diseases, that includes to other types of salmon too, so moving the farming to the west-coast doesn't take the problem away.

On the other hand, if you mean that the escaped salmon will compete with the locals, woldn't that only meen that the strongest fish will survive and it wil be to the benefit of the population?

In Norway, wich is the biggest export-country of farmed atlantic salmon in the world, this is a science, and even the exsperts cant't seem too find out the consquenses of escaping salmon. One assumed problem is that the escaped breed seems to go up the rivers later than the wild when they shall lay their eggs, because of this the female dig up the wild eggs when she dig for her own eggs. This is just an assumed problem.