Hi all.

You own a salmon nursery. Your reproduction technique/genetics or somewhow for a couple of years puts a distinctive orange spot on the fish skin coming out of your 'factory' facilities.

The young salmon are freed to the river and they continue to sea and open sea until adults.

If caught by a fisherman, could you claim ownership by the orange spot identification ? 🙄

Twisting the above... If every fish released is tagged with 'ownership' as a dog would; and caught by a fisherman at sea... I think it has been done extensively with free roaming cattle 'branding'.

IANAL but how do you claim ownership over something you willingly released into the public/common space of the ocean and river?

With cattle AFAIK you get a permit for grazing on government land and there’s some amount of tending of the herd. I think you’d need international law to cover it for fishing. (good luck with that)

On 8/18/2025 at 11:44 AM, Externet said:

Hi all.

You own a salmon nursery. Your reproduction technique/genetics or somewhow for a couple of years puts a distinctive orange spot on the fish skin coming out of your 'factory' facilities.

The young salmon are freed to the river and they continue to sea and open sea until adults.

If caught by a fisherman, could you claim ownership by the orange spot identification ? 🙄

Twisting the above... If every fish released is tagged with 'ownership' as a dog would; and caught by a fisherman at sea... I think it has been done extensively with free roaming cattle 'branding'.

I don't think so. Your description of a "technique/genetics" procedure seems to be more like creating a breed, rather than tagging or branding any specific animal. If breeding and genetics were associated with ownership, then whoever bred the first dalmatian or poodle would own all of the dalmatians and poodles. Right?

Gee

11 hours ago, Gees said:

I don't think so. Your description of a "technique/genetics" procedure seems to be more like creating a breed, rather than tagging or branding any specific animal. If breeding and genetics were associated with ownership, then whoever bred the first dalmatian or poodle would own all of the dalmatians and poodles. Right?

Gee

gee, if you say so...

On 8/18/2025 at 9:44 AM, Externet said:

Hi all.

You own a salmon nursery. Your reproduction technique/genetics or somewhow for a couple of years puts a distinctive orange spot on the fish skin coming out of your 'factory' facilities.

The young salmon are freed to the river and they continue to sea and open sea until adults.

If caught by a fisherman, could you claim ownership by the orange spot identification ? 🙄

Twisting the above... If every fish released is tagged with 'ownership' as a dog would; and caught by a fisherman at sea... I think it has been done extensively with free roaming cattle 'branding'.

As others have mentioned, generally speaking and depending on jurisdiction you can lose ownership of an animal once it escapes, and you certainly do not get ownership if they reproduce. However, you can be held liable for any damages (including ecological ones) if you release them or if they escape due to your negligence. Moreover, if the animals are genetically modified, they may fall under special laws governing the release of GMO organisms. That being said, the situation might be different if you have a patented breed, someone gets access to them and then breeds them (knowingly) for themselves and sell them for profit, it might be different as there patent infringement comes into play. That is very different question than ownership of an animal.

On 8/18/2025 at 5:51 PM, swansont said:

IANAL but how do you claim ownership over something you willingly released into the public/common space of the ocean and river?

When I read this post, I thought that he (or you) was mocking open source licenses.. ;)