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I think it is human nature to want to tinker with things and as technology advances, genetic engineering is going to come up more and more often. There may be a place for it in the future when it comes to salmon, however, i first think we need to get control of the current operations. Currently, i believe efforts would be better spent trying to contain disease and escapement issues.
Very well put Ron. While i believe genetic engineering has found a stable place within the agriculture industry, I’m not sure i feel the same way when it comes to livestock. Selective breeding is one thing but genetically altering a species is another. I think our efforts would be better off pursuing a viable option to the way we farm fish. One of the main issues i see is having farmed fish sharing habitat with wild stocks. Producing an economically efficient closed system would benefit farmed fish and wild fish more so than genetic engineering in my opinion.
Genetic engineering began in the early 90’s for the agriculture industry. I miss typed and put centuries instead of decades.
Your assessments on fish farm impact are very thorough. We have found ourselves in a unique challenge of our own making. Whats interesting is that Salmo domesticus should not be able to breed with Chinook salmon. Salmo domesticus was created from the Atlantic salmon species which falls into a different genus than the pacific salmon.
There is a need for an intricate balance of farmed vs wild salmon. As stated in the book, the wild populations are no where near enough to sustain the demand of the market. Therefore, a balance is going to need to be met where consumers are still able to purchase their fish while protecting wild stocks. This could involve farm reform, i for one am not a proponent of net penning, and believe a lot of the issues at hand pertain to farmed fish sharing habitats with wild populations.
