Triploids match diploids in commercial scale sea trials
The 2.7 million triploids that have been stocked into marine pens by Norway Royal Salmon (NRS) this year are performing as well as the diploids in the nearby cages.
“We have stocked 2.7 million sterile smolts into four different localities. It is somewhat early to draw any definite conclusions about this year's output, but the sterile fish are performing on a par with the reference fish we have,” the company’s CEO, Charles Høstlund, told kyst.no.
The company announced its Q3 results last week, when they also took the time to review their sterile production.
“In the third quarter we slaughtered the [triploid] fish that were put out late 2014. These fish were harvested out at 5.5 kg and had better growth than the diploid control group. Both groups had a high mortality rate in the first phase of production, then lower mortalities after that,” he said.
“Given the low numbers of fish involved in the first sterile group one should be careful not to draw too many conclusion, but it has provided useful experience in terms of production both positively and negatively for NRS,” he continued.
He added that deformities – which are often seen to be problematic in triploids - have not been a challenge.
