Aquaculture Fish

[bmarshall6]

As for being candidates for aquaculture, salmon and sea bass both have positives and negatives. However, based on the criteria for domestication by Francis Galton neither species really fits the bill or for that matter no aquatic species fit the criteria. In terms of domestication both sea bass and salmon are about the same in Galton’s definition.
First off neither of the fish are very hearty, adult fish will lay many more eggs and only a few of those offspring will actually survive to adulthood to reproduce.
Secondly most fish lack the desire to be around humans and the ones that do like to be near people are not suitable for large scale consumption.
Most fish aren’t comfort loving, that is to say they won’t go out of their way to chose comfort over natural life. That being said if an easy meal is offered both species will take an easy meal over one they have to spend energy to obtain.
For reproduction the problem with both species and most marine fish is that they won’t freely breed in captivity.
Finally, and probably the only difference in the two is how easy (or not) they are to tend and raise. Salmon eggs are larger and provide more nutrition in the early life than those of sea bass. In this case the salmon would be much more easy to raise in captivity than the sea bass.
I think for domestication both species provide many challenges. However, I don’t quite agree with Galton’s model for domestication when it comes to marine life. Based on his requirements for domestication he rules out most if not all species of fish. I believe that by starting with salmon and sea bass rather than a more widely consumed fish (or even harder to raise type of fish) we have a good building block or can begin to form a better model for domestication of marine species.

[faelmore]

I disagree that salmon are just as unsuitable as sea bass for aquaculture. No fish will be a perfect candidate, but, that being said, some are definitely better than others. For example, salmon have a much higher survival rate than sea bass. 15-30% of 7,500 is way better than 1 or 2 individuals out of a million. I will agree that no fish really likes human company, probably because they don’t have the mental capacity to form bonds like we see in other mammal species. As for comfort-loving, the salmon definitely don’t try to kill themselves in captivity to the extent that sea bass do. For reproduction, salmon are more likely to reproduce as well, but we don’t exactly need them to either due to the genetic modifications we now have. Sea bass completely shut down when put in a tank.

[Kortney Birch]

I agree that neither of these fish really fit, but there are definitely more differences than in the amount of tending they need. As stated in the reading, the Sea Bass will actually completely stop their reproductive system while in captivity versus the Atlantic salmon’s ability to keep reproducing.

I also think that the Atlantic salmon is relatively hardy, especially when compared to the Sea Bass.

[jltusten]

I agree that neither fish really fits the bill for Galton’s criteria. I also agree that his criteria aren’t very accurate when it comes to fish domestication since no fish will warm up to people, and they generally don’t reproduce freely.

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