Effectiveness of triploidy as a management tool for reproductive containment of farmed fish: Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) as a case study

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) dominates aquaculture production in its native North Atlantic range, raising concerns about the impacts of escaped farmed fish on wild populations. While physical confinement and operational management practices have improved steadily with the development of this industry, some escapes are inevitable. In the absence of effective measures for the rapid recapture of escaped fish, the only practical method currently available to minimize their impacts on wild populations is to ensure that they are female triploids and therefore reproductively sterile. The technology for producing all-female triploid populations of Atlantic salmon is simple and easily applied on a commercial scale, and routinely results in populations that are entirely female and > 98% triploid. Aside from sterility, there are no population-wide phenotypic effects of triploidy, although triploids do tend to perform less well than diploids with respect to commercial culture characteristics and are also less likely than escaped diploids to out-compete or displace native salmon. Some uncertainties exist with respect to their disease resistance and their potential to become reservoirs for the spread of pathogens to wild populations. If the spawning potential of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon is deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to native populations, then allfemale triploid populations could be used as an alternative to reduce risk. Research should continue to focus on improving triploid performance through breeding programmes and optimization of husbandry conditions (including nutrition, environmental conditions and fish health), with the goal of making triploids an attractive option for fish farmers.