‘Five tons of GM salmon already sold in Canada’

GENETICALLY modified salmon have been approved for sale in the US, but labelling complications have prevented them from coming to market. In Canada, however, according to a report released by the company AquaBounty, five tons of genetically modified salmon fillets have been sold.

Eric Hallerman, an expert in fisheries and fish genetics at Virginia Tech, who is not affiliated with the company, predicts that we will see many more genetically modified fish and other animals on shelves around the world in the future.

The AquaBounty salmon, called AquaAdvantage, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook Salmon. In the wild, salmon produce the hormone only when the conditions are right for rapid growth.

In the AquaAdvantage salmon, a regulatory switch from an ocean pout gene makes the fish produce growth hormone all the time, so the AquaAdvantage salmon grow rapidly throughout the year.

These fish grow four to six times faster than other Atlantic salmon early in life, said Hallerman, and they reach market weight twice as fast. This shortens the total production time from three years to 18 months and reduces the amount of feed they consume by 10%.

Fish farms can be established on land in tanks, or in the ocean in floating net enclosures. AquaBounty originally intended to produce the genetically modified eggs and sell them to commercial fisheries, which would grow the fish primarily in floating nets, said Hallerman. He helped to assess the plan’s environmental impact , and raised concerns.

The salmon eggs AquaBounty produces are female, and their number of chromosomes has been modified to make them sterile. But this process is not 100% successful, and Hallerman and others worried about the potential for these fast-growing salmon to escape and mix with wild populations.

AquaBounty, the company agreed to address concerns, and, have “stood by their word,” said Hallerman.

AquaAdvantage salmon eggs are produced in a land-based research facility on Prince Edward Island. If the eggs were to escape the facility, they would be in salt water, and perhaps unable to survive.

The eggs are shipped to a landbased aquaculture facility in Panama, thousands of kilometres from the Atlantic salmon population, where they grow to market weight.

The FDA and Environment Canada gave the fish the go-ahead.

Last month, AquaBounty purchased a fish farming facility in Indiana. The company plans to begin sales in the US in 2019, Dave Conley, a representative said. When regulations in the US will permit sale of the salmon is unclear.

The FDA approved the salmon in November 2015, and Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency followed in May 2016. Sales began in Canada in 2017.

“FISH GROW FOUR TO SIX TIMES FASTER THAN OTHER ATLANTIC SALMON… REACH MARKET WEIGHT TWICE AS FAST