The fate of farmed fish after escape is poorly understood. The extent to which these fish might impact freshwater ecosystems is dependent upon their survival and distribution in the wild. I simulated small- and large-scale escape events from two commercial aquaculture operations in Lake Huron over 2 years. I combined the use of telemetry (120) and Floy (1000) tags to determine the fate of escaped farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Once released, escapees dispersed rapidly, showed low site fidelity (~15% after 3 months) and were capable of long distance movements (up to 360 km). Rainbow trout experienced low survival (~50%) but maintained high growth rates both at and away from the farms. The results of this study provide a strong basis for understanding the potential risks that farmed fish may pose to the Lake Huron fish community and ecosystem in an escape event.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MANITOBA/oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/4376 |
| Date | 19 January 2011 |
| Creators | Patterson, Kristen |
| Contributors | Blanchfield, Paul (Biological Sciences), Davoren, Gail (Biological Sciences) Gillis, Darren (Biological Sciences) McLachlan, Stephane (Environment and Geography) |
| Source Sets | University of Manitoba Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
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