Surrogate project puts plenty more fish in the sea

DADDY salmon plus mummy salmon equals... baby trout? Japanese researchers put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish.

Idaho scientists begin the next big step next month, trying to produce a type of salmon highly endangered in that state — the sockeye — this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.

The new method is “one of the best things that has happened in a long time in bringing something new into conservation biology”, said University of Idaho zoology professor Joseph Cloud, who is leading the US government-funded sockeye project.