COULD WE RESTOCK THE OCEANS BY RELEASING FISH BRED IN CAPTIVITY?

Demand is for apex predators such as salmon and tuna, high up in the food chain. But they require a lot of food made from other marine fish, which means further depletion of wild fish stocks. Fish farms encounter the problems of any intensive monoculture where individuals of a species are crammed together: disease and pollution. There is evidence that farmed fish spread diseases to wild populations, have a damaging effect on the genetics of wild fish stocks through interbreeding and that they are less able to survive in the wild. There’s also environmental damage, so it looks as if marine fish farming may be more of a threat to wild fish stocks.