Seafood
Education

Genetically Modified Salmon
Want that on your plate?

Eric Hoffman, Biotechnology Policy expert with Friends of the Earth  Genetically Engineered Salmon Project in Canada. Scientists, fishing industry authorities, and a full range of media.  More and more people are trying to understand how GE salmon could be approved by the FDA, when top scientists say it's not safe for to eat, and when these aggressive, ravenous eaters demonstrated support for GE corporations. The US FDA wants to approve GE salmon without environmental risk studies which puts everyone that eats it at risk. These farmed fish get out all the time.  These GE salmon endangers our future wild fish supply and all kinds of jobs in the fishing industry.  Other countries refuse to buy genetically modified foods, or foods that have been contaminated shutting down all export sales.  Decisions are now being made that could contaminate fish on a global level, are  being made too quickly, without the notification or approval of the people. and without the required safety studies.  Listen to find out more shocking details how you may soon be eating GE fish and not even know it.

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Monterey Bay Aquarium Position on Genetically Engineered (Modified) Salmon

September 2010

In assessing and evaluating the risks associated with the production of genetically engineered (GE) fish, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process and the required Environmental Assessment document both rely on three specific containment strategies: physical, geographical and biological.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recommends that introductions of species for aquaculture should be considered as introductions to the wild, even if the facility is considered a closed system (FAO, 1995). Therefore we consider the likelihood of escape of GE salmon at some time in the future to be high.

Current methods available to fish farmers to produce sterile or reproductively non-viable fish (and therefore to achieve ‘biological containment’) are not perfect. The most common method, triploidy, is less than 100% effective. At 99% sterility, one fish in every hundred would not be sterile and could be reproductively viable. Production of GE salmon, even in its early stages, is likely to involve the production, shipping and growing of hundreds of thousands of eggs and fish. Therefore we must consider any escapes to potentially contain reproductively viable GE salmon.

Due to the largely unknown or incalculable risks associated with the introduction of (even small numbers of) reproductively viable GE fish into the wild, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch rating criteria are unable to adequately assess this as yet untested type of aquaculture. Concerns about the genetic interaction of escaping domesticated farmed salmon with wild populations are well-documented.

Taking into account the additional risks associated with potential escape of GE fish, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opposes production of GE salmon due to the inherent environmental risks involved.

For more information, please contact:

Peter Bridson, Aquaculture Research Manager Seafood Watch Program Center for the Future of the Oceans (831) 647-6845; [email protected]

FAO, 1995, Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome, Italy, 41pp.