Fight for fish research

An article in the almighty Nature journal has shown a brewing fight between researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woodshole, Massachusetts and the non-profit group, Food and Water Watch (FWW). 

The researchers have placed an aqua dome with 5000 hatchery raised Black Sea Bass, Centropristis striata, at the seafloor of Buzzards Bay and these fish will be released later this month. The fish have been trained to respond to a sound cue so when given they swim back to the aquadome and feed on artificial food. Thus fish are able to forage in natural conditions but are further supplemented through this method.  

This technique, if successful, could help boost wild populations as well as have commercial viability. However, the FWW has stated that the investigation carried out by the US army corps of engineers, which gave the permit, was not thorough enough. There is a risk that fish food and waste could pollute the areas around the cage as well as changing the behaviour of wild fish populations. Researchers are proceeding despite a pending US court order

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