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March 13-14, 2001
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Fish Flee Farm
| Recipe for Disaster? |
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Some environmentalists say the recent escape of farm-raised salmon into Maine's Machias Bay may become an environmental disaster. They worry that the farm-raised fish may make their way to rivers where the wild salmon spawn, mate with them, and weaken the future of wild salmon in the process. After all, farm-raised fish have been bred to satisfy market needs. They have qualities such as the ability to grow quickly in a pen in order that a maximum amount of fish—and profits—is achieved. Such a characteristic differs greatly from the genetic qualities needed in the wild, such as hardiness. Wild salmon, for example, are capable of swimming all the way to Greenland and then returning to the river of their birth to reproduce.Wild Atlantic salmon are already on shaky ground; they were listed as an endangered species in eight Maine rivers last fall by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Government officials also say that serious diseases have been found in farm-raised salmon. They worry that such diseases may be passed along to wild salmon. Fish breeders argue that disease travels instead from wild fish to domesticated fish.
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| Future Uncertain |
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At this point, scientists have no way of knowing what the released salmon, accustomed to being fed three times a day, will do. Will they instinctively head for the rivers and mate with wild salmon? Will they return to the area where they used to be penned? In their confused state, will they simply become easy pickings for predators? Some fish farmers argue that there is little danger that the escaped fish will cause damage to the wild salmon's genetic pool. They point to the fact that in order to stabilize the decreasing salmon population, the state of Maine has for years released hatchery-raised salmon into the rivers. The news organization Reuters recently quoted John Ripley, a spokesman for the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in Orland, Maine, as saying: "Over the past 100 years or more, something like 100 million salmon have been reintroduced into Maine's rivers. There's no chance that the original wild strain could survive." |
| You Do the Math |
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In addition to the unknown future of wild Atlantic salmon, the escaped farm-raised fish have caused a problem of a different sort. Salmon breeders report a huge financial loss because of the escaped fish.
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