by Scarlett Tanager / Earth First! Newswire
Farmed Norway salmon at a market in France. Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Marine Harvest, the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon, discovered over the weekend that a storm had damaged one of its massive submerged 127,000-fish cages, releasing up to thousands of salmon. Citing concerns over gene-pool contamination of wild populations, the company is offering a $90 bounty for every fish recaptured. The company is concerned that due to their larger size and faster growth rate, the fish will vigorously celebrate their new-found liberty in its purest form: by mating. Although worldwide salmon escape rates are decreasing, increased genetically modified fish farming will likely make their occurrence more troubling. Given the ocean’s ongoing struggles, virile roving frankenfish are the last thing it needs.
Click here to read Al Jazeera’s report on the incident.
