Sea ranching

Extensive salmonid production

Stock origin, rearing site and return of adults 

 

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Sea ranching relies on the capacity of salmon to return to where they were released after having migrated. The technique therefore consists of producing juvenile salmon in fresh water and releasing for downstream migration – at the smolt stage – when their instinct is to swim downriver.
The fish are then caught as adults when they make their return migration. The objective is that by fishing at sea, enough reproductive adults remain to swim up the river and achieve natural reproduction to provide eggs to be collected to complete the cycle in intensive production conditions. Most of the Pacific salmon fished today is produced using this technique.

Ifremer/Y. Harache