In the DNA:The complicated genetic relationship between wild and farmed salmon

摘要

It might be surprising to some that wehumans share 99% of our DNA with ourclosest relations, the chimpanzee. Humansand chimps parted company between 5 and 6 million years ago. The first farmed salmon smolts were put to sea in Scotland in 1967. That is fifty-three years ago. The original stock was taken from local rivers several times over the years. The suggestion that farmed salmon are now distinct from the wild salmon they were taken from is simply nonsense. Farmed salmon are still very much Atlantic salmon. Of course, if someone was to look hard enough, there are differences in some of the genetic code, just as my genetic material is slightly different from my parents and my grandparents. It doesn't fundamentally change who I am.Salmon genetics have been in the news again following storm damage to the pens of a west coast salmon farm and the release of some of the stock into the open sea. One critic called this an environmental disaster comparable to an oil tanker running aground; clearly from someone who has no memory of the Braer or the Exxon Valdez.