Canada Sued Over Genetically Modified Salmon Calamity
In a sneaky plan to get around regulatory approval, one US-based company tried to ship genetically modified salmon eggs to Prince Edward Island in Canada, which were then meant to be sent to Panama to be used in what activists are calling a ‘huge, live experiment’ which could have permanently damaged non-GM salmon. The Canadian government will have to answer for its part in the scheme in a lawsuit mounted by environmental groups.
AquaBounty Technologies, based in Massachusetts, has assured the world that its genetically modified fish pose no threat to the environment and would be kept in special disease- and antibiotic-free conditions. The company also claims that the modified fish can grow to the size of wild salmon with 75% less feed, reducing the carbon footprint, but they also fail to mention that trials of GM salmon did not go as well as the they planned.
GM salmon were created by altering their growth rates through gene splicing of Chinook salmon DNA – growth hormones. If you can recall, the ‘success’ of bovine growth hormones, also promoted as completely safe by the biotech industry, later made cow’s utters swell and become infected.
Read: Costco Decides to Sell Controversial GM Salmon
Environmentalists will present their case in Canada’s federal court on Tuesday to argue that there is a real risk of mixing between the GM salmon and wild fish. Furthermore, they attest that the Canadian government was wrong to approve the production of the eggs on Prince Edward Island.
Mark Butler, campaigner at the Ecology Action Centre, which is bringing the case alongside the Living Oceans Society, said:
“This will potentially be the world’s first genetically modified fish available for human consumption and it’s clear the GM industry wants to get other animal products approved after this. We think the measures to avoid mixing with the wild Atlantic salmon are inadequate and once there is genetic contamination the wild salmon is forever changed. It would be a huge live experiment and we wouldn’t know the consequences.”
Butler explains also that hurricanes, human error or equipment failure could release the GM fish from their land-based hatcheries into the ocean. There is no way to ensure that the GM salmon would not reproduce with the non-GM salmon, causing havoc on the environment.
It is alleged that the Canadian government broke its own environmental laws by providing AquaBounty with a far wider permit than it was assessed on, potentially opening the way for other companies to produce GM fish eggs in Canada. The lawsuit also states the government did not follow the correct procedures in its approval.
Please, enlighten me and the other readers: what are
precisely the risks, specially for the USA
environment, since the eggs will be produced in Canada, the triploid, female
fish will be grown in Panamá and only the fish flesh will reach USA? This is
how it will work, as specifically approved by the FDA.
Them canadian fish wunt dare cross ower border. I jus dares em. Terrorists, them canadian fish.
Why have the FDA approve selling fish they won’t allow to be grown in the USA? Why is it ILLEGAL to grow the eggs in the USA but supposedly LEGAL to grow the eggs in Canada? And these ILLEGALITY / LEGALITY circumstances = A REQUIREMENT of the acceptance of the GMO sale of fish in the USA? What is this NONSENSE?
You did not answer my question.
Look it up. GMOs of all sorts are very risky.
Please tell us what have been the damage, after 180 million hectares have been planted with Gmo varieties, vaccines, Drugs and other molecules are eargerly consumed worldwide and even teansgenic mosquitoss are finding their way to the market…
The risk is environmental and we are only learning the consequences. LOOK IT UP.
FDA approved the use of GM salmon as food in USA. The production outside USA is not FDA business. In a very exceptional decisivos, it accepted the company business strategy, involving other contries. As simples as that.
Ever wonder how fish get to small isolated ponds in the middle of no where? Birds like the crane carry the fish eggs on there legs.
I think messing with animals this way is going to far to fast. Go ahead and troll me.
We have been “messing” with our animals in the last 200 years, fortunatelly. That is why beef, eggs and milk are affordable. The biotech animals will be just another step in the same direction.
Selective breeding is not the same as gene splicing.
No, genetic engeneering (or editing, but never splicing) is not the same as selective breeding: it is safer im most instances.
How do you know, have any examples. If this fish gets out it could upset ecosystems just like any other invasive species.
Salmons are not invasive species, they not display the characteristic traits needed for invasion of new ecosystems or ecotones. Feed eager salmos, like this GM salmos, even less.
What are you talking about, you don’t think this GMO salmon chinook eel fish will not force out other species if it gets out, I’m not talking about natural salmon.
There’s a clear scam here. Since when can anyone argue that “because there is no real difference between the GMO and the wild fish” there is no need for labeling, but, obviously, “because there is a real difference between the GMO and the wild fish” the company needs a patent on the GMO fish. I don’t understand why no one but no one is challenging the legality of this have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too fallacy.
I read all this and then I see the ridiculous trending articles and offers and think uuuuummmmmm, is this for real