Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS34 Impacts of Aquaculture and Mariculture

Date: Thursday, February 15, 2001, Time: 12:15:00 PM

Location: Sandia/Santa Ana

Whoriskey, F, G, Atlantic Salmon Federation, St. Andrews, NB, Canada, asfres@nbnet.nb.ca

Wild Salmon, Escaped Farmed Salmon, and a Conservation Imperative

In the Bay of Fundy-Gulf of Maine region, wild Atlantic salmon populations are near biological extinction. The causes of the declines are uncertain. However, the east coast Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry, which presently produces about 35,000 mt of Atlantic salmon per year, now dominates the region. The industry poses a number of challenges to wild salmon recovery. Farmed salmon are escaping from the cages and outnumber wild runs in indicator rivers by as much as 10 to one. Juvenile salmon are also leaking into rivers from freshwater hatcheries. More recently, Infectious Salmon Anemia virus, a disease that has caused over $40 million in losses to the Canadian salmon aquaculture industry, has been detected for the first time in wild salmon. If wild populations are to recover, as a first step they must be insulated from interactions from the industry. This is possible due to common interests between the industry and conservation organizations, such as keeping farmed fish in cages and eradicating disease.

This Session Listing

Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

Quicklinks