Feb

12

2008
 
 

…and into the fire



Salmon farms destroy wild populations, global data reveal

It was this big, covered in lice, and three years ago...More evidence of the negative impact of salmon farms on wild populations is published today in PLoS Biology. Dalhousie University researchers the late Ransom Myers and former student Jennifer Ford, now at the Ecology Action Centre, Nova Scotia, studied catch rates of wild salmon living near fish farms off the Irish, Scottish and Canadian coasts. Populations “exposed” to fish farms – whereby migrating juveniles swimming past the holding pens are assaulted by parasites, disease and the unwelcome advances of amorous escapees – have plummeted across the board. In return for a farmed harvest of 1450 tonnes in 2003, for example, the wild Newfoundland population’s recruitment rate dropped by a staggering 63 percent. Decreases of 50 percent per generation are commonplace. The data build on an earlier, smaller scale study, and make fish farms look ever more unsustainable. It’s almost enough to make one long for the good old days of over-exploitation! Source: Ford JS & Myers RA (2008) A global assessment of salmon aquaculture impacts on wild salmonids. PLoS Biology DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060033

Related story in Conservation magazine: 10 Solutions to Save the Ocean | Salmon Farms Create Deadly Clouds of Sea Lice

Image © Bill Raboin

Filed Under Endangered species, Marine, Monitoring, Economics and conservation, Socio-political issues | 

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