Thanks TB, good points. I will address below.
A hatchery is not basically a fish farm. There's a big difference between raising fish for food, and raising fish for intended release. A farm is a farm, regardless of whether it is on land or at sea. If you want to raise fish for food, you are selecting for different characteristics than you would if you are intending to produce fish that will adapt well to a natural environment. No different than releasing a few nice big grain fed cows into the Northern BC forest to fend for themselves. They may do very well when eating out of a trough, but they don't have the genetics to do well when out in the wild. Take a look at anything we cultivate for food and see how closely it resembles the wild form (sheep, cows, strawberries, chickens). Very different than what we would do if the intention was producing a creature for release into the wild.
Fish farms (like Omega) will select for certain characteristics. Not uncommon to breed a few large males with many females to try to produce bigger, faster growing fish. Nothing wrong with that at all if your intention is big fish for market. If you're releasing fish into the wild in the hopes they come back and spawn, it's probably better to not have a few thousand brothers and sisters courting each other back on the grounds.
I've got little issue with releasing these fish, but for the proponent to be touting it as the saving grace of the Alberni Inlet Chinook stock is quite misguided. These things will be seal bait.I see no benefit to releasing them, and some (admittedly low) risk to wild stocks from this action. I primarily have issue with the misrepresentation of the situation by the proponent, and the (not unexpected) take of this thing hook line and sinker by the (supposedly) anti farming crowd, who are now apparently in full support of releasing farmed Chinook into the wild to intermingle with their wild brethren.
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Topic: More DFO Insanity (Read 22231 times)