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Outside magazine, May 2001 Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Science
Gene Pool

Think fly-fishing is sacred? Meet supertrout.

HARRY CAMPBELL
THE NEWLY sequenced human genome may be an astonishing victory (or villainy) of science, but a group of West Virginia researchers has for the past year and a half been quietly working to trump it—by charting the double helix of a far more critical species: Oncorhynchus mykiss.

As in trout.

As part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture­backed effort designed to identify rainbow trout genes of interest to fish farmers scientists at West Virginia University in Morgantown are mapping genes that will resonate among the nation's anglers as they head forth into another fishing season (read: whopper size and die-hard fighting strength). Officially, the project aims to bolster the nation's aquaculture industry, but research leader John Killefer hopes his team's findings may also help create a recreational supertrout.

"We're not making any monster fish," says Killefer, explaining that the work is aimed only at selectively breeding for prized traits, rather than any sort of genetic alteration. On the other hand, at least for some of us, perhaps a genetically tweaked fish isn't such a biotech nightmare. Late last summer, New Zealand scientists confirmed what many have always feared—that trout are downright smart, and they learn quite quickly to stay away from flies. So could some enterprising scientist create, say, a fish for amateur anglers? "In theory, you could try to breed a dumb trout," says Killefer.

None of this washes with Charles Gauvin, president of the conservation group Trout Unlimited: "It's an incredible stroke of hubris for anybody to say we can selectively breed a better recreational fish than Mother Nature can." Chalk one up for Darwin. —Mark Schrope

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