The aquaculture of salmonids lamberg caviar the farming and harvesting of salmonids under controlled conditions for both commercial and recreational purposes. Salmonid aquaculture production grew over ten-fold during the 25 years from 1982 to 2007. Much controversy exists about the ecological and health impacts of intensive salmonids aquaculture.

Of particular concern are the impacts on wild salmon and other marine life. Very young fertilised salmon eggs, notice the developing eyes and vertebral column. Salmon egg hatching: In about 24 hr, it will be a fry without the yolk sac. The aquaculture or farming of salmonids can be contrasted with capturing wild salmonids using commercial fishing techniques. Salmonids are usually farmed in two stages and in some places maybe more. First, the salmon are hatched from eggs and raised on land in freshwater tanks. Increasing the accumulated thermal units of water during incubation reduces time to hatching.

The coastlines of these countries have suitable water temperatures and many areas well protected from storms. Chile is close to large forage fisheries which supply fish meal for salmon aquaculture. Modern salmonid farming systems are intensive. Their ownership is often under the control of huge agribusiness corporations, operating mechanized assembly lines on an industrial scale. In 2003, nearly half of the world’s farmed salmon was produced by just five companies.

This allows location of the hatchery to be independent of a significant fresh water supply and allows economical temperature control to both speed up and slow down the growth rate to match the needs of the net pens. Conventional hatchery systems operate flow-through, where spring water or other water sources flow into the hatchery. The eggs are then hatched in trays and the salmon smolts are produced in raceways. The waste products from the growing salmon fry and the feed are usually discharged into the local river. An alternative method to hatching in freshwater tanks is to use spawning channels. These are artificial streams, usually parallel to an existing stream with concrete or rip-rap sides and gravel bottoms. Water from the adjacent stream is piped into the top of the channel, sometimes via a header pond to settle out sediment.

Sea cages, also called sea pens or net pens, are usually made of mesh framed with steel or plastic. A large sea cage can contain up to 90,000 fish. They are usually placed side by side to form a system called a seafarm or seasite, with a floating wharf and walkways along the net boundaries. Additional nets can also surround the seafarm to keep out predatory marine mammals.