Aquaculture and restocking: implications for conservation and welfare
As the harvesting of fish through commercial fisheries becomes both harder and less economically viable, the world is becoming increasingly dependent on aquaculture to provide fish for human consumption. The closely related activity of stock enhancement, whereby large numbers of fish are reared and then released, is a common practice aimed at increasing the numbers […]
Duck’s Not Dead: Does Restocking With Captive Bred Individuals Affect the Genetic Integrity of Wild Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) Population?
The genetic integrity of natural populations can be threatened through large-scale introduction of farmed stocks with different genetic or geographic origin. Huge numbers of farm-reared mallard (Anas platyrhynchos, Anatidae) have been introduced into the wild in many European countries since 1970. Czech breeding facilities currently produce around 200–300,000 ducks annually, exceeding wild numbers by around […]
Early life behavioural differences in wild caught and domesticated sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)
Behavioural studies comparing hatchery and wild-caught fish are useful to improve selection for aquaculture and restocking programmes. We examined swimming behaviour characteristics in wild captured and domesticated sea bass juveniles before and after eliciting a startle response at 8 different ages and always on naive individuals. We specifically investigated whether domestication impacts juvenile sea bass […]
Genetic differences for behaviour in juveniles from two strains of brown trout suggest an effect of domestication history
Because captivity constitutes a drastic environmental change, domestication is expected to induce a rapid genetic selection for behavioural traits. In this study, we searched for genetic differences in behaviour among brown trout juveniles from two strains differing for their domestication history, i.e. an almost pure native wild Mediterranean population (W) and an Atlantic domesticated strain […]