It’s so confusing that even the “prestigious” Huffington Post (sarcasm for those who can’t recognize it) can’t figure out the appropriate headline.
The story was about a newly published collection of more than 20 studies by leading university scientists and government fishery researchers that provides mounting evidence that salmon raised in man-made hatcheries can harm wild salmon through competition for food and habitat.
The original headline in the Huffington Post was “Farmed Salmon May Harm Wild Salmon, Say 23 Recently Published Studies”.
When headlines go wrong
Oopsy.
This new study has little to do with farm-raised salmon (by definition, farmed salmon are kept captive for their entire lifecycle).
The study is about hatchery-raised, or more specifically, ranched salmon. Over five billion salmon are released into the waters off Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Russia and Japan each year. Their mission – to compete with wild fish for food and return to where they were released to be caught for human consumption. As this blog has pointed out many times, there are sustainability questions that can’t be ignored (no matter how hard the Monterey Bay Aquarium tries).
Once Huff’s goof was pointed out, they apologized and posted a new title “Wild Salmon Populations Affected By Hatchery Fish, Say 23 Recently Published Studies.”
Still alarmist, but much more accurate.
