Make Way for Frankenfish! 

What Happens To These Ordinary Salmon If The Genetically Modified Lunkers Ever Get Loose? 

Time Magazine

Whether served as raw sushi, grilled steak or in thin smoked slices, most of the salmon you eat these days is not the sleek sport fish that has been a favorite of anglers since Izaak Walton but rather a chunky, sluggish creature raised in captivity. Indeed, salmon caught in the wild accounts for less than half of all salmon sold in the U.S.

Now gene splicers have cooked up a replacement that sounds like a fish tale: a veritable superfish, one that can grow at least twice as fast, resist disease and outmate competitors. If approved, it could provide protein to millions of people at a time when fish stocks are perilously low. But as you might expect, some critics are carping. They consider the supersalmon a biological time bomb that could destroy the remaining natural salmon populations and wreak other environmental havoc. To them, the supersalmon is nothing less than a "Frankenfish."

Unlike other genetically modified foods--so-called Frankenfoods--the supersalmon was born almost accidentally. About 20 years ago, a fish researcher in Newfoundland found that even though his saltwater tank had frozen, the flounder in it survived. Adapted to icy Canadian waters, the fish turned out to have a gene, known in other polar fishes, that produces an anti-freeze protein. While trying to splice this gene into salmon so it too could be grown in colder waters, scientists made a second accidental discovery: they found that while the gene didn't keep the salmon from freezing, a portion of it, when stitched onto a salmon's growth-hormone gene, greatly speeded development--up to five or six times as fast as in the early months and about twice as fast overall. Patenting their discovery, the scientists started a company in Waltham, Mass., called A/F Protein (A/F stands for antifreeze).

The company has 10,000 to 20,000 Atlantic supersalmon swimming in endless circles in 136 tanks at three locations in Canada's Maritime provinces. The hope is that these fish will soon be producing eggs for commercial aquaculture not just in Canada but in New Zealand, Chile and the U.S. as well. By turning to the supersalmon, says Elliot Entis, A/F's president, fish farmers could double production without doubling costs because the fish converts food into body mass so much more efficiently than ordinary salmon. That, he says, would mean "more fish for more people at a lower price."
 

Gene-Altered Giant Salmon Cannibals

Seattle Times

In a fight for survival, the normal Coho salmon lost to the aggressive genetically modified salmon known as "frankenfish." Scientists found when genetically modified (GM) salmon were kept in the same tank as normal salmon, the GM salmon devoured their smaller-sized competitors and even ate their own kind. A tank that once held 50 animals ended up with only a few GM fish survivors. This finding supported the theory that negative consequences resulted from a lack of food supplies. It also raised the concerns of researchers on the potential harmful effects of releasing GM fish into natural waters. The concern has become more of a reality as the Aqua Bounty Farms requested the FDA’s approval to market a modified salmon that would grow at a rate 50 times faster than normal salmon. Some researchers claimed this GM salmon would benefit both fish farmers and consumers in terms of lower costs. What Could Happen if These GM Fish Escape Into the Natural Environment? The already vulnerable natural salmon supply would face further danger if they had to compete with GM fish for food supply and mates, which could eventually force the natural fish to extinction. This is also known as the "Trojan gene" hypothesis. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon from farms found their way into the Northwest waters after a series of storms and roving sea lions tore open their floating tanks. Aqua Bounty Farm’s answer to the escapees trying to reproduce in the natural environment was to raise only sterile females in the tanks. Other studies showed that if the GM fish escaped into the natural environment, their chances of survival was minimal due to their increased likelihood of contracting disease and their unawareness to the threats of predators. While it was found that GM fish grew much quicker than normal fish, they weren’t significantly bigger once they reached full-growth.