Fish Gene Pools Preservation Of Genetic Resources In Relation To Wild Fish Stocks

As the human population increases and nations become more industrialized, the habitat and water quality required for the survival of fish continues to decline. In addition to these environmental factors, fish populations are directly or potentially affected by harvesting, enhancement programs and introgression with hatchery-propagated or transgenic fish. To our knowledge no other scientific meeting has been assembled to consider the breadth of the problem, to review the technology that is presently available for the preservation of the germ plasm of salmonid stocks and to identify the scientific advances that are required to overcome the problems. Because many salmonids have spawning grounds within the confines of a specific region or county but will spend a large portion of their life cycle within the territorial waters of other countries or in the open ocean, the preservation of unique genes or gene pools in these animals requires international cooperation. This scientific meeting has provided a forum in which to discuss the problems, evaluate the present methods or technology for addressing the problems and suggest new directions or innovations that need to be implemented. During this meeting we limited our discussion to salmonid fishes. However, the general conclusions about the factors that affect the population dynamics of fish stocks and the technical aspects concerning the preservation of germ plasm will be applicable to other fish species.

Tomatoes could not be grown commercially without the help of their wild relatives. A single wild species of rice has helped double rice production in Asia. Wild silk-worms are enabling India to expand its silk industry. A wild carp with resistance to cold has been used to extend Soviet carp production further into the north. Wild genetic resources - the heritable characteristics of wild plants and animals - are used increasingly to improve domesticated crops and livestock and as new sources of food and of raw materials. But habitat destruction, over-exploitation and competition from introduced species is destroying many gene pools even before they have been identified. Genes from the Wild describes the growing contribution of wild genetic resources to the production of food and raw materials, describes their characteristics, explains the benefits and problems of using them and outlines the ways in which they are threatened and the measures being taken to conserve them. Originally published in 1988