Experts Warn GE Fish Too Risky to Environment.
CFS Calls for New Framework, Mandatory Environmental Impact Statement

The Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing at 10:30 AM today to discuss the environmental risks of genetically engineered (GE) fish, the first hearing of its kind in Congress.

“Members of Congress have once again raised the stakes in the GE fish debate on Capitol Hill,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety.  “FDA can no longer continue to ignore the environmental risks that GE fish pose.”

Subcommittee Chairman Senator Mark Begich (D-AK), a strong advocate for the responsible management of wild stocks has been a vocal critic of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) failure to adequately address the environmental risks posed by GE fish, most notably the current review of the AquAdvantage Salmon, produced by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc.  If approved, the GE salmon would be the first GE animal approved for human consumption by the FDA.  The company has also developed a genetically engineered trout and tilapia.

Today’s hearing will examine the risks that GE fish pose to wild fish stocks, fisheries, and aquatic ecosystems should these fish escape into wild habitats, including the spread of parasites and disease, increased competition for food and mates and the potential genetic contamination of wild stocks.  Similar concerns have been raised a number of times by Members of Congress, FDA’s Advisory Committee and the scientific community.

“FDA has failed to ask the tough questions about escapes, disease transfer and the full environmental impacts of GE fish,” said Colin O’Neil, Regulatory Policy Analyst for the Center for Food Safety.  “By assuming that escapes won’t happen, FDA is putting our marine ecosystems, our health and our fisheries in harm’s way.”

In a recently released study, Canadian researchers concluded that if GE Atlantic salmon were to escape from captivity they could succeed in breeding and passing their genes into the wild.[i]  Another recent study focuses on developing risk assessment approaches that incorporate the genetic backgrounds and environmental conditions that are likely factors in a real escape of GE fish.[ii]  Yet, data on the GE salmon provided by the company notes that the fish studied were raised at Prince Edward Island, while the actual planned location to raise the fish is in Panama – something FDA properly criticized AquaBounty for.

Earlier this summer, 93 environmental, consumer, health, and animal welfare organizations, along with fishing groups and associations and food companies and businesses, celebrated the passage of the Young-Woolsey amendment that was included in the House-passed Agriculture Appropriations Act of 2012 that would bar the FDA from using funds in the 2012 fiscal year to approve GE salmon.  The Senate measure sponsored by Sen. Murkowski (R-AK) did not reach a vote.

The Subcommittee hearing comes just three months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it had awarded a $494,162 grant to AquaBounty to research technologies that would render fish sterile to decrease the risk of gene flow from transgenic tilapia.

“Today’s hearing further highlights the scientific unknowns at play and makes you look back at the USDA grant and why the USDA is in the business of funding this company to research something it has already assured the FDA it can do,” added O’Neil.

Citing risk to the environment, consumer backlash and the potential for economic impact, a number of fishing associations as well as salmon farming companies have already voiced their opposition to the use of transgenic salmon including Marine Harvest ASA, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association, International Salmon Farmers Association, the Irish Salmon Growers Association, the New Brunswick Salmon Growers’ Association, Alaska Trollers Association, the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, the Massachusetts Fishermen Partnership, Inc., Cooke Aquaculture, Inc., Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, Scottish Salmon Producers Organization, California Fisheries Network, SalmonAid, North Atlantic Marine Alliance, the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, and many others.

Click here to watch the hearing (archived version)

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The Center for Food Safety is a national, non-profit, membership organization founded in 1997 to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS currently represents nearly 200,000 members across the nation. To learn more, please visit: www.ge-fish.org