Impacts of Farmed Salmon on Wild Populations

Emeritus Professor Tom Cross gives us an insight into his research on Atlantic Salmon population genetics and the impacts of farmed escaped salmon on wild populations. His research discovered that salmon home to their own populations and locally adapt to particular conditions. It's also revealed that over 2millions tonne of Atlantic Salmon are farmed, with 1% escaping through human error and storm damage to nets etc. This is over 20,000 tonnes! While many die some survive to reproductive age and run the rivers and interbreed with wild native salmon. To research the impacts of this Tom and his team conducted a number of experiements in controlled environments in the wild and in the hatchery and compared the surivial rates of prue wild fish, cross breeds and farmed salmon. The results could hint at complete extinctions of wild populations of salmon in some areas.