BioCage: a novel approach for biological containment of farmed fish

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The proposed research project looks to find an innovative solution to the problem of the escape of farm-raised to fish. Over the past decade, fish escape from net pens has become highly politicized due to the concern that the escaped domestic fish may cause negative ecological impacts on wild fish stocks by out-competing for food and has a source of genetic pollution as a result of interbreeding with natural populations. The project will develop a line of transgenic fish expressing a specific factor that causes an increased requirement for a specific nutrient. Under artificial feeding regimes, the requirement for this nutrient will be covered. In the event offish escape, the escaped fish would be unable to survive due to the fact that the specific nutrient under question would not be found at high enough levels in the fish's natural prey. As a result of nutrient deficiency, escaped fish would lose condition, become anorexic, fail to reproduce and eventually die. The specific objectives of the project are 1) evaluate specific genetic constructs permitting an increase in specific nutrient requirement; 2) verify the ability of a model fish species to appropriately express selected gene construct; 3) validate the ability of nutritional manipulations to overcome higher levels of specific nutrient requirements. This project will open the door to the development of an innovative biocontainment strategy for farmed fish species and thus reduce the ecological impact of aquaculture production on wild fish stocks.