Comng Soon to a Dinner Plate Near You?

Genetically modified salmon moved closer to the market last week with release of draft documents from the Food and Drug Administration that assessed the environmental risks posed by AquAdvantage salmon, which grow faster than regular Atlantic salmon.

The agency found, on a preliminary basis, that the GM fish, produced by AquaBounty Technologies of Massachusetts, posed no significant threat.

LINK (LA Times)

Kakha Bendukidze Holds Fate of Genetically Engineered Salmon

If Americans ever eat genetically engineered fast-growing salmon, it might be because of a Soviet biologist turned oligarch turned government minister turned fish farming entrepreneur.

LINK (via:The NY Times)

The Genetically Engineered Salmon That Could Soon Run Wild

Outside's Ari Laveaux pulls back the curtain on gentically engineered salmon.

AquaBounty salmon, the unreported disaster at a Panama grow-out facility, and the Georgian libertarian who took control of the fish farm and may soon move it outside the watch of the Food & Drug Administration. Meet what could soon be the first GE animal allowed for human consumption.

LINK (via: Outside Online0

Senate defeats attempt to study genetically engineered salmon

The Senate yesterday defeated an amendment, 45-50, by Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to require comprehensive environmental study of what she called a “test tube” salmon before the government approves it for the food supply.

LINK (via: SF Gate)

Wild B.C. salmon test positive for 'lethal' virus linked to fish farms

Fish farms, the gift that just keeps on giving.

Wild sockeye salmon from B.C.'s Rivers Inlet have tested positive for a potentially devastating virus that has never been found before in the North Pacific.

Infectious salmon anemia is a flu-like virus affecting Atlantic salmon that spreads very quickly and mutates easily, according to Simon Fraser University fisheries statistician Rick Routledge.

ISA can be fatal to Atlantic salmon, especially those confined in fish farms. Its effect on wild sockeye is unknown.

The virus detected in sockeye smolts by the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. — Canada's ISA reference lab — is the European strain of ISA, the same virus that devastated fish farms in Chile four years ago.

LINK (Via: The Vancouver Sun)

Scientists in Washington state are already working to improve testing for the marine virus as a precaution.

If the virus news was not grim enough.....

Environment Canada isn’t sure it can fully protect wild fish stocks if it approves the commercialization of a hatchery of genetically engineered salmon eggs.

Genetically modified frankenfish one giant step closer to reality.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed its highly-anticipated evaluation of the environmental impact of the world’s first genetically-engineered (GE) fish for human consumption, and written a document supportive of its commercialization on the U.S. market, according to a person close to the review process.

LINK (Via: Talking Points Memo)

Think the systems to prevent these fish getting into the wild are foolproof?

The company has taken measures to make sure that its AquAdvantage fish are sterile, slipping the transgenic fish an extra chromosome. It works in 98 percent of cases, and the company claims that, in combination with its land-based system, it can achieve genetic isolation of the fish.

Yeah, until some hayseed steals a few and dumps them in the Miramachi.