The Food and Drug Administration approved biotechnology company AquaBounty’s application to make and sell genetically engineered salmon in 2015, and now a federal judge is on the verge of ordering the government agency to take another look. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is presiding over a case filed by the Center for Food Safety against the salmon’s approval, and he expressed concerns on Tuesday that the FDA’s approval of the salmon could inspire AquaBounty to expand their AquaAdvantage salmon program without fully considering the ecological impacts of it.

I’m not saying it opens the floodgates or sets the standards, but perhaps it pushes us in a direction and future agency action will likely be informed by this agency action…Shouldn’t the FDA in this case have considered the fact that this was the first such facility and future decisions would be building on this facility?”

Judge Vince Chhabria

The AquaAdvantage salmon is the first genetically engineered food animal that the FDA has approved for raising and selling. The fish is a genetic mix of an ocean pout and Pacific Chinook salmon, a combination that leads to higher growth hormone in the blood. The company plans to breed the salmon at a hatchery on Prince Edward Island in Canada before moving the eggs to their facility in Indiana.

When the agency completed their assessment of the salmon, they listed the salmon as having “no significant impact,” and Department of Justice attorney Marissa Piropato said that…

AquaBounty has no guarantee that the FDA is going to accept whatever comes down the pike…”

Marissa Piropato

Environmental groups have a different take on the approval and current impact status of the modified salmon that echoed Judge Chhabria sentiments. The treatment and regulation of the AquaBounty salmon sets the precedent for the future of gentically engineered food animals.

Whatever they do here is going to inform the approval for those other applications and is going to inform what the FDA does for all GE animals going forward…If the analysis they are doing here is inadequate that means it’s never going to be enough. It’s not going to get better.”

Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy

Genetically modified fish will soon be sold in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration lifted the import restriction on AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon eggs on Friday, March 8th.

In late 2015 the FDA approved AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon, but shortly thereafter Congress had the FDA block the GM salmon from entering the U.S. until labeling standards were issued. Last December the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. The GM salmon will be labeled as “Bioengineered.”

AquaAdvantage GM Salmon eggs will be imported to the company’s land-based facility in Indiana where the eggs will be raised into salmon and sold as food. The AquaAdvantage Salmon grows year-round and grows faster than farm-raised Atlantic salmon. The salmon will take more than a year reach the market if everything goes according to plan. Aquabounty chief Sylvia Wulf told the AP certification for an Indiana growing facility is expected in a few weeks. The facility will then receive the genetically modified salmon eggs and it will then take approximately 18 months for the salmon to reach their target weight.

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• GMO Potatoes Are Here – How To Avoid Them
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• How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering

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The Cornucopia Institute reports that GMO salmon is being sold as sushi and sashimi in Canada. AquaBounty Technologies is a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that produces genetically modified fish called “AquAdvantage,” that they say is “The World’s Most Sustainable Salmon.”

AquaBounty is the first and only company selling genetically engineered salmon. Scientists inserted a growth-hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic regulatory elements from the ocean pout into Atlantic salmon.

Although AquaBounty, the makers of engineered fast-growing salmon, have refused to tell the public where their product is being sold, their CEO recently bragged to investors that it is being used in the Canadian buyer’s “high-end sashimi lines, not their frozen prepared foods.” Consumers must continue to be wary of the origin of their food: know your farmer!” – The Cornucopia Institute

Ron Stotish, AquaBounty’s CEO, told investors last Thursday that they have sold 4.5 tonnes of it in Canada so far this year, and that,

The people who bought our fish were very happy with it. They put it in their high-end sashimi lines, not their frozen prepared foods.”

Related: How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering

In Canada, GM fish does not have to be labeled as such. Consequently, customers may not know if the salmon they ordered is genetically modified.

AquaAdvantage Salmon is engineered to grow at twice the rate of regular salmon while consuming up to 2 percent less feed than regular farmed salmon.

This is an untenable situation. The fact that, once again, the company has let slip a piece of information to investors — but is information Canadian consumers need and don’t have — exposes how much it is that Canadians need labelling.” – Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

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The FDA has approved AquAdvantage salmon for human consumption, but wild salmon is big business for Alaska, so Senator Lisa Murkowski and other Alaskan officials in Congress got the FDA to block AquAdvantage imports until new GMO labeling regulations are in effect for food labels.  Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced the amendment prohibiting the import of the GM eggs needed to produce AquaBounty’s salmon, and she co-sponsored legislation mandating the labeling of genetically engineered salmon.

In the fish version of a great escape, thousands of Atlantic salmon have escaped from their holding pen at a fish farm in Washington state. The official estimate is currently at 4000 to 5000 escapees, and crews are currently working to recover as many fish as they can. Even so, this is hardly good news for anyone involved, as the invasive Atlantic salmon may breed with native Chinook salmon and pose a threat to the food supply. There were higher than usual tides in the area due to the eclipse, but most of the experts investigating the breach conclude that the culprit was faulty holding pens.

No Concrete Answers

Cooke Aquaculture, the owners of the farm the salmon escaped from, are not sure of the number of fish that escaped, leaving marine ecologists and Washington state wildlife officials to guess at the extent of the damage done. Wildlife officials have invited fishers in the area to help in the repair effort. In a statement from Ron Warren “Our first concern, of course, is to protect native fish species…So we’d like to see as many of these escaped fish caught as possible.” There is the possibility that these escaped fish will also pass diseases onto the delicate Pacific salmon populations.

Future Implications

Michael Rust, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researcher, brings up a good point when he points out that these fish are unlikely to pass on diseases to other salmon, saying “These things are kind of couch potatoes. They are domesticated. Imagine a dairy cow getting lost out in the Serengeti. It doesn’t last very long.”

Perhaps a salmon disease epidemic is unlikely with these particular fish, but there is no way to measure the effect it would have on the animals consuming it. This also calls into question the industry’s ability to handle the ramifications of the new genetically modified salmon, the first genetically modified animal available for consumption. Many of the supporters of the fish claim the chance of escape will be unlikely should feel very uneasy after a mishap of this magnitude.

Related Reading:

• Safe Seafood and What to Avoid in 2017
• Genetically Modified Salmon Is On Its Way To Your Store
• Wild Caught? Maybe Not – Salmon Sold to You May Have Been Farm Raised

Sources:

• Thousands of Atlantic salmon escape from fish farm into Pacific  – The Guardian
• Please go fishing, Washington state says after farmed Atlantic salmon escape broken net – Seattle Times
• Genetically Modified Salmon Is On Its Way To Your Store – Organic Lifestyle Magazine