Thoughts on Genetically Modified Salmon?

[425nm]

So I'm doing a presentation on AquaBounty technologies (who are based in PEI) transgenic Atlantic Salmon (an iteroperous salmon - spawn multiple times during their life).
Edit: Sorry, the presentation is for my Ethics of Genetics course at the U of A.
I'm wondering what is public perception of this? (I won't be using this in the presentation, just curious).

Here's their website:
http://www.aquabounty.com/

Here's how the genetic modification works:

• The promoter (a regulatory DNA sequence, it does not produce a protein) from the Ocean pout antifreeze protein was hooked out to the Chinook salmon copy of growth hormone (the actual growth hormone is identical to the one in Atlantic salmon, however it is regulated differently). This was then integrated into the salmon genome.

This results in faster growing salmon but not significantly larger salmon (see the website for more details). Apparently they also have a slightly improved feed-to-mass conversion (which is very important as Salmon eat other fish which are ultimately wild caught :| <-- making farming them redundant in my opinion).

The biggest concern is invasion of native populations.
The likely hood of them out competing native stocks or closely related species is contentious. Some experiments show that it is very likely to occur, others suggest it probably won't happen.
This is likely because non of the experiments actually use AquaBounties specific transgenic line but rather transgenic Chinook salmon or transgenic rice fish.

Do you think it's safe alternative to wild caught? and in what context? Sea pens vs. Recirculating system?
Would you eat them?
Are you just saying no because of the "yuck factor"?
Questions?

[This is a really quick run down, I may repost a more detailed/organized version depending on if I get any responses]

[monocus]

in my opinion,any fish will probably get out of any enclosure and back to the wild.if they decided to farm in the desert-then fine,but nowhere near any bodies of water or streams that could lead to the ocean

[425nm]

Originally Posted by monocus

in my opinion,any fish will probably get out of any enclosure and back to the wild.if they decided to farm in the desert-then fine,but nowhere near any bodies of water or streams that could lead to the ocean

Most certainly. Net pens are terrible for keeping the fish in and the seals out. What if these fish were to be raised, in land (say in Alberta) in an aquaculture facility?

[burgerchow]

You need seahorse's opinion. He graduated in fish studies and has been involved with salmon aquaculture

[monocus]

it wouldn't be cost effective.they farm on the coast for the free water.course we could always build a double pipeline and ship butimine to kidamat and we could ship fresh ocean water to alberta-call it an even trade

[TimT]

I had heard that they were planning to raise them in pens in the Caribbean. Less environmental laws and incredibly cheap labour rates. As an added bonus the fish would grow faster in the warmer water. If they thought the lionfish epidemic was bad in the Caribbean these fish would make them look like delicate eaters once they got out of the pens and started breeding.

I suspect this would devastate the farmed salmon industry in Canada when all the companies moved to Central America.

I personally don't eat farmed Atlantic Salmon as I prefer wild Coho or Sockeye. I also don't like that they load the fish up with artificial colouring to make the flesh turn orange. Orange fleshed salmon sells much better than white fleshed salmon.

[monocus]

i agree-i would rather spend more money on wild caught than have a cheaper substandard product

[425nm]

Originally Posted by TimT

I had heard that they were planning to raise them in pens in the Caribbean. Less environmental laws and incredibly cheap labour rates. As an added bonus the fish would grow faster in the warmer water. If they thought the lionfish epidemic was bad in the Caribbean these fish would make them look like delicate eaters once they got out of the pens and started breeding.

I suspect this would devastate the farmed salmon industry in Canada when all the companies moved to Central America.

I personally don't eat farmed Atlantic Salmon as I prefer wild Coho or Sockeye. I also don't like that they load the fish up with artificial colouring to make the flesh turn orange. Orange fleshed salmon sells much better than white fleshed salmon.

Current "draft" with the FDA is that the folks in PEI produce sterile (triploid) all female eggs which will be sold to one facility in Panama (that meets FDA standards) where they will be raised in a freshwater flow through system. No live transgenic fish is to enter the United States.
Not sure how the FDA plans to inspect/enforce across borders.
Problem with farming salmon is that they need to eat other fish. So it solves nothing. Plus is cranks out tons of nitrogen into surrounding water.

[Dearth]

I personally have no issues with genetically modified salmon it is a hot topic in the lower mainland but up north here not so much but I see it as the ocean has a finite amount of resources and even carefully managed will still deplete over time whereas farm fish can be harvested for an infinite time as it does not rely on nature and its fickleness.

[somewherebeyondthesea]

My family has been involved with triploid rainbow trout, and we had a great experience, with these.

I can see both sides have valuable arguments. Just like any GMO product they will never be able to match that of organic food IMO. And it seems that GMO products have less nutritional value than that of organic foods.

I could see how this would help sustain depleting fisheries. This is a reoccurring problem. The main argument we had for keeping triploids was that we couldn't have wild caught as they could "in the event of a flood or bird of prey picking up and dropping off said specimen into another body of water" could severely effect that ecosystem.

I would argue that even though they couldn't spawn, they would get large enough much faster say if you had a juvenile schools of fish in that lake/river.
You could argue that this is similar to the chicken and beef industry in that they use similar methods to mass produce foods.

If you're interested in a more hippie approach to it I would contact "save the reef" from PADI? They have interesting arguments and programs that look after protecting wildlife in our oceans. They may have some investing points on salmon.




Cheers,




Steve