Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Aquaculture has become an important industry and employer in coastal areas of rural Canada, with production dominated by Atlantic salmon. The industry, however, faces challenges related to escaping fish, which continue to persist despite mitigation measures to reduce their incidence. Moreover, global competition and poor public perception have created an intense market for salmonids. To remain competitive, the industry is diversifying, and marine species such as Atlantic cod are being studied as candidates for domestication. Interest has been spurred on by the collapse of wild cod stocks, and commercial production in likely in the near future. Based on experiences with salmon, we can expect farmed cod to escape and interact with wild cod. The extent and consequences of these interactions, however, are unknown for such a strictly marine species. Now is the time to address this issue before industry practices become standard, and before mitigation becomes difficult and costly to implement. Our project will determine the nature of the interactions between farmed and wild cod and from this, provide a means to assess risk and identify mitigation measures. Our research encompasses five areas: (1) Determination of the likelihood of inbred cod reproducing within cages, and the subsequent quality of embryos released into the environment. (2) Determination of factors which may reduce the motivation of cod to escape from cages. (3) Tagging studies to determine the fate of escaped fish and whether they can be easily recaptured. (4) Mating experiments to determine the potential for interbreeding between farmed and native wild cod, and thus the potential for the introduction of aquaculture/non-native traits into the wild where they are likely to have a negative impact. (5) Laboratory experiments to determine if hybrids potentially produced from native cod and escaped fish from a different population will have lower growth and survival than native fish. The results of our project aim to reduce potential ecological effects, as well as indsutry costs, of escapes from aquaculture and improve Canada's ability to respond to the science and policy challenges presented by the growth of its aquaculture industry.