Millions of modified fish have escaped into the Atlantic from offshore farms in Europe and America. And the new strains are mating with wild salmon, polluting their gene pool and producing hybrids that can't survive in the open ocean. There's certainly a link between the decline of our wild salmon and the escape of these farm-bred fish. They are kept in huge pens in the open ocean off the coast of New Brunswick and the coast of Maine in the States.
Wild salmon are muscular and built to make a long voyage into the ocean and back.
But over the longer term the farm fish can't survive in the ocean and neither can the offspring of wild salmon and farm fish. In fact, they're so big they look like footballs,' said federation president Bill Taylor. And scientists believe female wild salmon choose the bigger males for mating. In the US, two major environmental groups Defenders of Wildlife and Trout Unlimited are suing the Federal Government in an effort to force them to put Atlantic salmon on the endangered species list. The government would then have to protect wild salmon and drop some the support it gives the salmon farming industry.