I have been following this stuff for years, and actually worked with one of the leading researchers in transgenic salmon. He was based out of FOC’s West Vancouver Laboratory and he would not be happy if I divulged his name as he and his research have been threatened with sabotage from probably well meaning, but misinformed people, more than once.
Some of the fears in the article posted are silly; first, only sterile females are used, so possible escapees would not lead to interbreeding and really, what would an escaped Atlantic salmon breed with in Panama? Or, if raised in the US, it would be simple to do so away from where the few hundred remaining wild Atlantics live (Maine)
Second, if these sterile fish could escape from a land based closed containment facility, they would not out compete wild fish, or any fish for that matter, as they would have zero experience in doing so. They would starve to death, quickly.
I personally think gm salmon raised in closed containment will be a big part of the future for salmon aquaculture as it may finally make raising these fish, in this manner, economically viable. The hard part will be making the public accept this product as safe. Funny, as we all consume gm vegetables and other products daily. Still, it’s gonna be a hard sell. But hey, wearing seatbelts, stopping smoking, and bringing a reusable grocery bag to the store were also hard at first.
This reminds me of a possible scenario about 10,000 years ago when Ig said to Ng; why are we chasing these antelope when we could capture them and raise them in captivity? And so it began
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Topic: GMO Salmon (Read 2919 times)