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€1.7m Award for Research on the Impact of Escaped Farm Salmon

3 Aug 2016

The majority of salmon consumed worldwide is sourced from salmon farms.  However farmed salmon escapes frequently occur and the farmed salmon can interbreed with wild salmon potentially reducing the fitness of native populations and their long-term ability to survive. 

Dr Phillip McGinnity (School of BEES, AFDC and ERI) has have been awarded €1.7 M under the SFI Investigator Programme to investigate wild farmed interactions with farmed to inform environmental best practice to secure long-term sustainability of global wild and farm fish populations. The Marine Institute are Co-PI on the project.

The project will exploit new analytical techniques in population genomics and quantitative genetics to investigate mechanisms by which Atlantic salmon escaping from farms reduce the survival potential of wild salmon, when they breed together in rivers. This reduces the productivity of rivers and is detrimental to fisheries and biodiversity. The issue is limiting the expansion of the salmon farming industry, in Ireland and worldwide.

The €1.7M award is part of an overall award of €9.3 million funding for UCC under the 2015 SFI Investigators Programme.