Future of genetically-modified salmon in doubt

CBSNews.com ^ | December 4, 2012 | AP

[neverdem]

Salmon that has been genetically modified to grow twice as fast as normal could soon show up on American dinner plates. That is, if the company that makes the fish can stay afloat.

--snip--

Using gene-manipulating technology, Aquabounty adds a growth hormone to the Atlantic salmon from another type of salmon called the Chinook. The process, company executives say, causes its salmon to reach maturity in about two years, compared with three to four years for a conventional salmon.

Aquabounty executives say if their fish are approved for commercial sale, there are several safeguards designed to prevent the fish from escaping and breeding with wild salmon. The salmon are bred as sterile females. They also are confined to pools where the potential for escape would be low: The inland pens are isolated from natural bodies of water...

[chris37]

Keta or sockeye, nothing else will do.

[sagar]

I believe GM foods have their place (desert cultivation, space travel, etc) but their use in normal environment will screw up the nature’s natural processes. I try to avoid GM as much as possible and go local and organic. Not possible always but you do not overeat the process and modified crap.

[DesertRhino]

“They also are confined to pools where the potential for escape would be low: The inland pens are isolated from natural bodies of water...”

Ohhhh, like we did with jumping asian carp!

[UnwashedPeasant]

"there are several safeguards designed to prevent the fish from escaping and breeding with wild salmon."

Isn't that what they said about Killer Bees?

[roadcat]

I believe GM foods have their place (desert cultivation, space travel, etc) but their use in normal environment will screw up the nature’s natural processes.

Oh, I don't know. Wouldn't it be nice to mix salmon with chicken and produce salmon wings and legs? (We also go organic as much as possible, so I doubt my wife will be feeding me salmon wings!)

[Boogieman]

"Aquabounty executives say if their fish are approved for commercial sale, there are several safeguards designed to prevent the fish from escaping and breeding with wild salmon. The salmon are bred as sterile females. They also are confined to pools where the potential for escape would be low: The inland pens are isolated from natural bodies of water..."

[GladesGuru]

Hmmn - so, salmon could grow twice as fast. And this is wrong in just what way?

[dennisw]

No way these salmon don’t taste like watered down shit. I would not eat them. Tilapia either

[Eska]

I’ll just continue to set my King net in the Yukon come July, they may be getting smaller and lower numbers; but I ain’t going to starve either.

[tbpiper]

I believe GM foods have their place

And it's not on my table if I can help it.

[Ezekiel]

Salmon that has been genetically modified to grow twice as fast as normal could soon show up on American dinner plates.

Expect disappointment just like with those sea monkeys.

[Justa]

Have they determined the causes of the decline yet? On the east coast fish stocks were commercially over-fished and Dem lawmakers such as Gary Studds D-MA, would issue fishing permits to international vessels which weren’t counted in landing totals. Yet when the governments decided to ‘do something’ they set restrictions on recreational fishing and later US commercial fishing. All the while they continued their patronage of foreign commercial interests as they were not subject to US law and oversight.

[redgolum]

My wife and I were talking about this last night over supper. I have some experience with GMO crops, none with animals, but in the past these “isolated populations” get into the wild eventually.

Not sure this is a good idea.

[9YearLurker]

I take it those aren’t natural glades you’re the guru of—or you would have thought through how that could mess up a natural ecosystem.

[Eska]

Same thing is happening in the Bering sea and around Alaska. There is a Pacific Fisheries council that is made up of past Repub politicals and they are bought & paid for by foreign fleets. State of Ak continues to lower sport & subsistence limits while doing nothing about by catch which is the real problem. By catch numbers in the open ocean by fleets far surpass totals all in river fisherman harvest. And that is the by catch numbers the fleets are reporting if you can even believe them.

When the fish stop returning to the Yukon, within a couple years the fleets will disappear too.

[GladesGuru]

You posted: “I take it those aren’t natural glades you’re the guru of—or you would have thought through how that could mess up a natural ecosystem.”

as the above is thoughtful, and has some implied premises, it deserves more than a one liner answer.

Regarding the naturalness of the Everglades, the State of Florida worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to make it a most un-natural of places. While so doing, they took a $400,000,000 “Restoration Project” to above 17 BILLION BUCKS ! ! !

Be assured they do not even know what natural was - probably why they took restoration funds to bring a part back to its 1941 status. Said status was a farm field.

The Armed and Rangerous blew your money removing “invasive plants” and left clean land. What will seed in will not be the Garden of Eden, because that garden was allegedly created by more than mere bureaucraps in uniforms with unlimited access to America’s resources.

By the way, in case you didn’t notice, most of America is now owned by the Gubment. And, the Constitution did not allow such Gubment ownership og land because the Founders understood the essential nature of Man sufficiently well to realize that Gubment can’t and won’;t manage land at all well.

Having established that the Everglades is far from either natural or well managed, it falls upon me to inform you of the following sad news. There is a vanishingly small probability that even the Annointed Won, Lord Chief Obama hissef can create any plausible scenario wherein AgencyPersons will manage land, business, education, banking, or any other human activity with anywhere near the success which pre-Roosevelt America had demonstrated.

Having been a member of the Florida Sierra Club’s Florida Executive Committee (FLEXCOM), I can assure you that “environmental regulations” are crafted to destroy America so that socialism can have its day in the sun.

Got sun block?

Due to the tendency of the socialist sun to burn brightly enough to create scorched habitats, I suggest using nothing less than a S.P.F. of 500.

Got bunker? Either get a deep one of call your travel agent and price travel off-planet. Why off-planet?

Because without America as the defender of freedom, there will be no free world.

Or even a free America.

[Carry_Okie]

One hypothesis is that accumulated charcoal from aboriginal burning was pivotal in retaining atmospheric deposition of trace minerals.

Please define "natural."

Please suggest what "natural" might have been in Everglades ca. 1600 AND (more important) how it got that way.

My guess is that your first answer will be functionally inconsistent with the second.

[Justa]

If the foreign vessels are operating in AK waters you should contact your state’s representative. If the vessels are operating in Federal waters you should contact your AK Congressional representative and/or senator about the actions of Pacific Fisheries council. Then contact the media.

The ‘council’ is likely run as a 501c(3) non-profit which pays it’s members via permitting fees and tax-deductable ‘donations’ from shell companies set up to launder payments made by foreign permit holders.

There are strict IRS reporting requirements for non-profits and its members. The council’s ‘donatations’ payment transfers and permitting fees should be audited for full accounting of finances and authorities to influence permits and quotas.

Also if it is a 501c(3) contact the IRS to question or challenge its status due to funding being actual income from companies associated with the foreign vessels. The financing and assets of council members should be audited by the IRS.

I recommend all of that. They are stealing from the public using foreign interests due to the vessels being outside US tax and reporting jurisdiction. Moreso they are destroying public resources while depriving local, state and federal agencies of tax revenue. State and federal tax agencies shold assist you with this.

[9YearLurker]

Ha—so you are an Everglades Guru!

I believe your description of things down there and with the government.