Fishery Expert Urges International Agreement On Salmon Production
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (AHN) – A Canadian fishery expert urged on Monday that an international agreement on salmon production be drawn up to prevent overcrowding of salmon stock in the North Pacific. Estimates by a Canadian-U.S. research team placed the population of adult pink, chum and sockeye salmon to twice as much as in the 1950s.
Randall Peterman, Canada Research Chair in Fisheries Risk Assessment and Management, attributed the surge in the salmon population to 718 million adult salmon returning to their freshwater homes in 2005. The large number indicates overpopulation of the ocean with salmon.
Partly responsible for the sharp rise in the salmon population is the annual release of five billion salmon fries from hatcheries in Japan and Alaska. The result of this annual release is adult salmon from hatcheries now make up about 20 percent of total adult salmon production. Peterman forecast their number would continue to increase.
Peterman said an international treaty will help manage production levels to prevent the domination of hatchery fish in the ocean. He explained the dwindling salmon stock to a regional problem, such as the one experienced in British Columbia’s Fraser River.
He said in North Pacific, Asia and other parts of North American total salmon population is abundant, also because of increased survival rates.
Peterman pointed out the need for production control over hatchery salmon and wild salmon is because the former stray into wild waters and interbreed with the latter, which dilutes the strength of the wild salmon species.
He said the wild salmon’s genes allow them to respond to different situations such as climate change, but the hatchery salmon are generally not successful as wild salmon to fluctuating condition.
The study is published in the online October edition of “Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamic Management and Ecosystem Science.”
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