Science behind better salmon

University of Windsor June 8, 2009

A UWindsor biologist’s research will help organic fish farms in British Columbia diversify their operations so they can expand into new markets.

Trevor Pitcher received $130,000 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and $65,000 from Yellow Island Aquaculture Ltd. for a three-year project to study production of high-performance, disease-resistant strains of Chinook salmon as an alternative to the Atlantic salmon being mass-produced on Canada’s west coast.

Dr. Pitcher’s team will breed 10,000 Chinook salmon at Yellow Island Aquaculture’s organic hatchery located on Vancouver Island near Campbell River, B.C. The fish will be reared from fertilization to sexual maturity at three years and will be marked with a transponder tag to record growth, genetic disease resistance ability, swimming ability, and reproductive ability.

See full story in the University of Windsor's news supplement