Belgian ‘blue cow’ biotech produces: Das ?berfisch 
:evil:?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/11/bow_down_before_the_ubertrout/
Welcome to the strange world of Dr. Frankenfish. Just think, if this guy gets together with the Missouri State fish hatchery thats using steroids on trout we could have 200 pound Rainbows in just a few short years…
Heh…Dr. Terry Bradley…I dated a girl with that name…she was not a mad fish scientist, though…as far as I know.
Clearly there are pro’s and con’s. Personally, while I’d love to catch a beast like that, I hate for native stocks to get diluted by these. If they want to use these at fish farms, perhaps they should make these fish triploid so they can’t spawn, in case of accidental release?
There are places where using these as ‘stockers’ would be a real plus.
I understand that if they could reproduce, you’d want to keep them out of contact with native trout. Can’t have our native fish getting bigger or stronger. Wouldn’t be natural.
But many of our rainbow fisheries are put and take. If these fish would produce more fish per pound of food pellets, then it could be a winfall to heavily strapped state stocking budgets. We as anglers would get more fish while it would cost us less.
And, if they were stronger or hardier or faster or maybe even all of these as well as maybe more argessive, then that would be a solid win over most of the current crops of stocked trout.
Pike predation of stocked trout is a big issue in some lakes. If these fish were more ‘survivable’ it might leave more fish for anglers to catch.
Of course, they could also be major disaster.
I just prefer to try to look on thebright side.
Bring on the supertrout. I’d sure like to catch a few of them.
Buddy
We as anglers would get more fish while it would cost us less.
Strictly speaking…it’d cost the gov’t agency less…idunno about AZ, but I doubt anyone in PA would see one red cent from those savings. 
Those things are U.G.L.Y.
If they want to use them on fish farms, go right ahead, but I hope they never see a natural environment.
Ditto. Why not just do triploids that can’t reproduce and ruin an already diluted gene pool?
My .02
Gary
Doubled-muscled cattle have been bred and raised for centuries in France. One of their traits is that they are far less fertile than other breeds of cattle. Their calving percentages may only be half of their “normal” cousins. I don’t know how this would play out in fish.
I also wonder if they would be more susceptible to death from lactic acidosis. They might provide a good, hard pull for 5 minutes and then float downstream past the angler, belly-up. Would they still have the fats rich in omega-3 fatty acids that other trout have? Double-muscled cattle tend to have very little fat. That might be a function of the fact that they were generally used to provide “high-torque” tractive effort. In other words, they pulled heavy plows slowly through the fields of France. I wonder how these trout would play on the end of the line.
I am silently hoping that nobody releases double-muscled bluegill or grennel…
http://www.hemmy.net/2007/07/07/big-wendy-the-incredible-hulk-dog/
http://www.hemmy.net/2007/07/16/belgian-blue-cattle-super-cow-aka-incredible-hulk-cow/
Does the line “just because we can, doesn’t mean we should” ring a bell?:twisted:
Amen! Absolutely bizarre, can you imagine driving through the European countryside and having them standing in the road? As in “Cattle Crossing”? Just too strange.
The rule of unintended consequences applies here. Asian Carp were supposed to clean up weeds in closed environment “fish farms”, until flooding set them free. Genetically modified corn wasn’t supposed to spread to adjoining fields, now it’s DNA is present in every field of corn in this state. The DNA of hatchery raised Rainbow trout is present in every existing strain of native wild trout in the US [unless there is some undiscovered population in some mountain meadow out west] Wild Salmon are now being subjected to the intermixing of the farm reared fish set free by the latest earthquakes and tsunamis off the coast of Chile. The telling comment here was; “just because we can, should we?”
The anthropocentric idea that we have complete dominion and control of spaceship earth is hubris of the first degree. That this Frankenfish could be released into the existing population is another example of that very fact. After Trout do we enhance Cod and Tuna and Mackerel and whales, so Japan doesn’t have to sacrifice as many for scientific reasons? Where does it lead? Where does it stop?
One thing I am sure of; If one part of the system is unsustainable, the entire system is unsustainable.
This is a very troubling and thought provoking event, just one more in a long line of messing with Mother Nature. It scares me.
Corvus
I wonder where it will end. Will Tyson’s chicken breed double-muscled chickens? If so, will they still have “tenders”? Will the French follow up their historic successes by breeding double-muscled snails? Will some eco-terrorist organization seed the Everglades with double-muscled pythons? Will some Vanderbilt researcher breed double-muscled linemen in another attempt at a winning football season for Vandy?
Ed, who thinks that there is potential for some very good, bad science fiction afoot.
I would rather them focus on a cure for my double muscled gut. If I spread my fingers out and push hard enough I too have somethind resembling a six pack.
Suddenly I have a mental image of some farmer in gum boots/wellies trodding slowly through a flooded rice paddy will his team of double-muscled carp pull the plow…
Creative? Naw, just weird…
Ed
I think that down the road this is the most likely outcome. In my opinion, people need to stop playing God because they can and direct their energies towards protecting what we have left and restoring what we’ve already lost.
geee and this from my home state. i hope it doent happen. not all rhode islanders are bonkers nope we are just nuts:D.