Saving Seafood

The rise and fall of genetically engineered salmon

January 15, 2025 — After 35 years, the genetically engineered salmon saga has ended. AquaBounty has closed its genetically modified salmon production facilities after losing millions of dollars trying to market a product for which there is no demand.

The AquAdvantage fast-growing salmon was initially developed in 1989 at Memorial University in Newfoundland, and AF Protein in Fortune Bay, Prince Edward Island, Canada, initially sought to bring to it to market. I started reporting on these fast-growing test-tube babies in 2000, when AF Protein reorganized and spun AquaBounty Farms, later called AquaBounty Technologies, into the U.S.— with headquarters in Waltham, Mass. The so-called Frankenfish, may not cease to exist, but the U.S. company, AquaBounty, has ceased its efforts to market the genetically engineered fish.

Since its creation, AquaBounty has burned through millions of dollars, trying to clear all the hurdles for FDA approval—including creating 100 percent triploid fish incapable of breeding. According to C. Greg Lutz reporting in Aquaculture Magazine in 2016: “The company reported net losses of $4.3 million for 2013, following losses of $4.4 million in 2012. Losses reported for 2011 and 2010 were $2.7 million and $5.3 million, respectively.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

AquaBounty’s GE salmon back under FDA assessment

November 25, 2022 — AquaBounty’s genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon is once again going through a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) environmental assessment (EA) after a lawsuit by multiple organizations led to a court order for additional analysis.

The FDA granted permission for the salmon to be sold in the U.S. in 2015, but a judge ruled in 2020 the agency needed to perform additional review of the salmon to evaluate the chances it could be introduced into the wild and its subsequent danger to wild salmon populations. A judge in San Francisco ruled the FDA did not do its due diligence when considering the possibility of environmental consequences with its approval of the salmon.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Frenchman Bay salmon farm developer sues Maine for spiking its lease application

May 31, 2022 — The company behind a controversial plan to build an industrial-scale salmon farm in Frenchman Bay is taking its case to court after the Maine Department of Marine Resources terminated its lease application last month.

American Aquafarms filed a complaint against the state in Cumberland County Superior Court last week. The Portland company, funded by Norwegian investors, proposed raising 66 million pounds of Atlantic salmon annually at two closed, 15-pen sites in Frenchman Bay, between Bar Harbor and Gouldsboro, with each pen encompassing 60 acres. The company also proposed operating a fish processing plant in Gouldsboro.

In its complaint, American Aquafarms alleges that the department’s decision was not supported by evidence. It also claims that the department spoke with a third party without its knowledge just days before the decision, violating American Aquafarms’ right to due process.

The state’s marine regulatory body terminated the application April 19. There were two major issues with it, said Jeff Nichols, department spokesperson.

First, the company failed to find a proper source for its fish eggs, according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the department. The hatchery listed in the application, AquaBounty in Newfoundland, is not on Maine’s list of qualified egg sources.

American Aquafarms also failed to show that the proposed hatchery satisfied genetic requirements mandated by state law, Keliher said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

AquaBounty salmon eggs cited as reason for Maine’s rejection of American Aquafarms permit

April 22, 2022 — The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) in the U.S. state of Maine rejected American Aquafarms permit application for a closed-net salmon farm specifically because its source for eggs – AquaBounty’s hatchery in Newfoundland, Canada – did not meet the state’s criteria for a qualified source.

According to DMR spokesperson Edward Hardy, the agency “terminated the applications of American Aquafarms after the company failed to fulfill its legal obligation to demonstrate an available source of fish to be cultivated at its proposed salmon farms in Frenchman Bay.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Innovation in aquaculture sector pushing seafood industry forward

March 30, 2022 — Aquaculture innovations will be the key to the seafood industry’s future, and the future of feeding humanity, according to a panel of experts from across the seafood industry speaking at the 2022 Seafood Expo North America.

The panel, “Transforming Aquaculture: The Future of Seafood Must Include Innovation,” was hosted by AquaBounty CEO Sylvia Wulf and featured representatives from both inside the seafood industry experts in food systems and nutrition.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Seafood alternatives continue to gain momentum in retail and foodservice

March 1, 2021 — The leaders of Gathered Foods, BlueNalu, and AquaBounty are each predicting a big year for their respective companies.

Speaking at the 2021 Global Seafood Marketing Conference, which took place virtually last month, Gathered Foods CEO Christine Tsai, BlueNalu CEO Lou Cooperhouse, and AquaBounty CEO Sylvia Wulf agreed the U.S. market is warming up to alternative proteins.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

AquaBounty sends GE salmon samples to customers ahead of first commercial harvest

February 24, 2021 — As AquaBounty nears the first harvest of its genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon, the company has started sending samples to its first customers this week for a final quality check before orders are finalized.

Seafood experts working with about 10 retail and foodservice companies looking to be the first to carry AquAdvantage salmon will be checking the samples for overall quality, flavor, color, and texture, and selecting which available fish size will work well for their market, according to AquaBounty CEO and President Sylvia Wulf.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Foodservice giants reject AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon

February 5, 2021 — Foodservice supplier Aramark this week confirmed its boycott of AquaBounty’s genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon.

Citing the company’s Sustainable Sourcing Policy, Aramark joins ranks with other foodservice leaders Compass Group and Sodexo, as well as a growing list of domestic retailers, seafood companies and restaurants.

“Reiterating our previously stated opposition to genetically engineered (GE) salmon, we will not purchase it should it come to market. Avoiding potential impacts to wild salmon populations and indigenous communities, whose livelihoods are deeply connected to and often dependent upon this vital resource, is core to our company’s commitment to making a positive impact on people and the planet,” Aramark’s policy states.

AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based biotech firm, prepares to bring its gene-spliced salmon to market from its only U.S. farm in Albany, Ind., in a shifting domestic market that increasingly values origin, health and sustainability, and wild over farmed seafood.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Court orders FDA to assess environmental impact of GM salmon

November 6, 2020 — A federal court judge ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to conduct an environmental assessment of genetically modified salmon that he said was required for the agency’s approval of the fish.

But the judge did not vacate the FDA’s approval of the salmon for human consumption in the meantime, because he said the risk for near-term environmental harm is low.

“The FDA has to go back to the drawing board and do its homework,” said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups that filed suit challenging the agency’s approval of the genetically modified salmon.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco centers on AquaBounty’s salmon, which are genetically modified to grow faster than normal salmon. In 2015, the fish became the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption in the U.S. After clearing other regulatory hurdles. AquaBounty began growing the fish in indoor tanks at an Indiana plant last year.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Fishermen’s group declares “partial victory” after court ruling on GM salmon

January 3, 2020 — Even though a federal judge ruled in December that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the authority to regulate genetically modified salmon, a commercial fishing group that sued the agency is declaring “partial victory.”

That’s because, in May, the judge will hear arguments on the second part of the case, which questions whether the FDA’s approval of GM salmon was deficient.

Read the full story at Seafood Source