The escape of fish from aquaculture is perceived as a threat to wild fish populations. The escapes problem is largely caused by technical and operational failures of fish farming equipment. In Norway ), despite the total number of salmon held in sea-cages increasing by 44% during this period. No similar decrease in escaped cod has occurred, suggesting that other measures, such as improved netting materials for sea-cages, are required. In addition to escaping as juveniles or adults, cod may reproduce in seacages, and thus fertilised eggs escape to the environment. The ecological effects of 'escape through spawning' are unclear, and methods to inhibit escape by this mechanism are being explored. To prevent escapes of juvenile and adult fish as sea-cage aquaculture industries develop, we recommend that policy-makers implement a 5 component strategy: (1) establish mandatory reporting of all escape incidents; (2) establish a mechanism to analyse and learn from the mandatory reporting; (3) conduct mandatory, rapid, technical assessments to determine the causes of escape incidents involving more than 10 000 fish; (4) introduce a technical standard for sea-cage aquaculture equipment coupled with an independent mechanism to enforce the standard; and (5) conduct mandatory training of fish farm staff in escape-critical operations and techniques.
Escapes of cod (Gadus morhua) from sea cages represent an economic problem for farmers and a potential environmental problem. We estimate that 0^6% of cod held in sea-cage farms in Norway were reported to have escaped each year from 2000 to 2005, which is a high proportion compared with salmon.We interviewed employees at 19 coastal sea-cage cod farms in Norway to investigate both how and why cultured cod escape and to document cage handling and management strategies that were e¡ective in minimizing escapes. Based on the interviews, we describe ¢ve working hypotheses that may explain why a greater proportion of cod than salmon escape: (1) cod are more willing to escape than salmon; (2) cod bite the net cage and create wear and tear; (3) net cages have insu⁄cient technical standards for cod culture; (4) cod are placed in sea cages at considerably smaller sizes than salmon; and (5) cod are more popular feed for predators. Preliminary testing of the hypothesis that cod bite netting and create holes was done by placing pre-damaged net panels with cut twines and control panels inside sea cages. Holes in the pre-damaged net panels increased in size over a period of 3 months. The type of damage indicated that biting of netting twines was the likely cause. Escape of cod from sea-cage ¢sh farms H Moe et al. Aquaculture Research, 2007, 38, 91^99 Aquaculture Research, 2007, 38, 91^99 Escape of cod from sea-cage ¢sh farms H Moe et al.
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