August 14, 2007
Jail Break – Fingerling Trout Make the Great Escape
BY: nikki
Keep a vigilant eye on your daughters:
Fingerling trout similar to the one
pictured here busted loose from a fish
farm in Scotland, aided by otters.
An estimated 30,000 juvenile trout made a break for it after a band of sea otters sprung them from a fish farm in Scotland.
Authorities discovered 20 places in the farm’s netting where the otters had chewed through. (No reports of the otters slipping spoons, files or other so-called “contraband” to the incarcerated trout by way of baked goods have surfaced.)
It may seem that fish farming is the obvious solution to overfishing concerns. For myriad reasons, though, fish farming can actually prove more detrimental to surrounding habitat.
Fish farmers, for one, often pump antibiotics into these fish tanks to prevent disease from spreading among fish, which are swimming in pretty cramped quarters. Humans eating such farmed fish are also ingesting these antibiotics, which are unnatural and not necessarily healthy.
When a jail break like the trout incident occurs, unnatural fish are introduced into a foreign ecosystem, competing for food and possibly causing problems for the marine locals — fish and such, that is.
One day fish farming practices will develop to where they are economically and environmentally feasible. Until then proper management of wild fisheries is a better solution.