Evaluating genetic traceability methods for captive bred marine fish and their applications in fisheries management and wildlife forensics

Jonas Bylemans, Gregory E. Maes, Eveline Diopere, Alessia Cariani, Helen Senn, Martin I. Taylor, Sarah Helyar, Luca Bargelloni, Alessio Bonaldo, Gary Carvalho, Ilaria Guarniero, Hans Komen, Jann Th. Martinsohn, Einar E. Nielsen, Fausto Tinti, Filip A. M. Volckaert, Rob Ogden

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
29 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Growing demands for marine fish products is leading to increased pressure on already depleted wild populations and a rise in the aquaculture production. Consequently, more captive bred fish are released into the wild through accidental escape or deliberate restocking, stock enhancement and sea ranching programs. The increased mixing of captive bred fish with wild conspecifics may affect the ecological and/or genetic integrity of wild fish populations. From a fisheries management perspective unambiguous identification tools for captive bred fish will be highly valuable to manage risks. Additionally there is great potential to use these tools in wildlife forensics (i.e. tracing back escapees to their origin and determining mislabelling of seafood products). Using SNP data from captive bred and wild populations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) and sole (Solea solea L.), we explored the efficiency of population and parentage assignment techniques for the identification and tracing of captive bred fish. Simulated and empirical data were used to correct for stochastic genetic effects. Overall, parentage assignment performed well when a large effective population size characterizes the broodstock and escapees originate from early generations of captive breeding. Consequently, parentage assignments are particularly useful from a fisheries management perspective to monitor the effects of deliberate releases of captive bred fish on wild populations. Population assignment proved to be more efficient after several generations of captive breeding, which makes it a useful method in forensic applications for well-established aquaculture species. We suggest the implementation of a case by case strategy when choosing the best method.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)131–145
Number of pages15
JournalAquaculture Environment Interactions
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Feb 2016

Keywords

  • Aquaculture
  • Conservation Genetics
  • Escapees
  • Fisheries Management
  • Tracing
  • Wildlife Forensics

Cite this