Scottish Salmon Heading for Extinction?
You’ve got to hand it to humans; we’ve really fucked things up.
Scottish salmon in “extinction vortex”
Danny Penman, New ScientistPampered farmed salmon are driving their wild brethren into an “extinction vortex” in rivers along the west coast of Scotland, according to new research.
“Farmed fish are bred to grow fast,” says James Butler, director of the Spey Fishery Board. “Their voracious feeding ensures that they out compete native salmon.”
But the farmed salmon do not then replace wild salmon in UK rivers, Butler warns: “When the farmed fish migrate to the sea they rapidly die off or are killed, so the population plummets. Another problem is that you get hybridisation, which weakens the wild stock. It’s a double whammy that drives them into an extinction vortex.”
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Posted to General Rants • 2002.07.16 (Tue) • 21:59
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