Alaska’s U.S. Senators filed two separate pieces of legislation in a pincer movement to crush the production of genetically engineered salmon in the U.S.
Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, is working to ban interstate commerce of engineered salmon through his Prevention of Escapement of Genetically Altered Salmon in the United States Act, released on Oct. 17. On the same day, Sen. Lisa Murkowski introduced an amendment to the 2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill that would “prohibit funds from being used by the Federal Drug Administration to approve applications for genetically engineered fish, or ‘Frankenfish’,” according to a joint press release from the senators.
Alaska’s senators, among others, use the term ‘Frankenfish’ to describe genetically engineered fish, playing off the writer Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein’s monster, a creature stitched together and animated from parts of multiple corpses. Shelly’s monster, which was a comment on the hubris and ambition of modern industrial man, escapes its creator’s control.
Alaska’s delegation has fired its latest salvo against federal approval of engineered fish in response to an application from AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based company, for Federal approval of its AquAdvantage genetically engineered salmon — Atlantic salmon with Chinook salmon genes that cause modified fish to “grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon,” according to AquaBounty’s website.
“There is just too much at risk here. The public has expressed serious concerns about the introduction of Frankenfish into the nation’s food supply including potential threats to the environment and public health, and economic impacts on producers of sustainable wild salmon,” Begich said.
AquaBounty’s spokesperson declined to comment. However, the biotech firm’s website states that “[AquAdvantage Salmon] will be grown as sterile, all-female populations in land-based facilities... cannot escape or reproduce in the wild and pose no threat to wild salmon populations.”
Mark Vinsel, Executive Director for United Fisherman of Alaska, isn’t convinced. “[Engineered salmon] are creatures inspired by nature to get out and about and procreate, even with genetic manipulation, that is what they are programed to do,” he said.
Even if AquAdantage Salmon are unable to breed, the Atlantic-Chinook cross could crowd out natural salmon runs “if they escape and cause trouble in our steams,” Vinsel said. Though not genetically engineered, Asian carp is an example of a non-native fish escaping aquaculture, Vinsel said. Two species of Asian carp imported into the southern United States and used to keep aquaculture facilities clean and to provide fresh fish for fish markets escaped into the wild in the 1980s moving northward into the Mississippi and Illinois River systems. The carp now threaten to enter the Great Lakes.
Genetic engineering, or genetic modification is the direct manipulation of an organism’s deoxyribonucleic acid — DNA. DNA’s double helix, discovered by Nobel Prize winners James D. Watson and Francis Crick, holds four bases, molecules with the names Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, Cytosine. Scientists manipulate the sequence of these bases to engineer new genetic information. In the case of the AquAdvantagesalmon, the changes cause rapid growth. Bacteria were the first genetically engineered organisms, in 1973.
While Begich’s act specifically targets modified salmon, both senators oppose all genetically engineered fish, Begich spokeswoman Julie Hasquet said.
“In Alaska we’re more concerned about salmon,” she said, however “we’ve attacked this from so many fronts. Our position is ‘no genetically altered fish.’ Why would you monkey with nature like that?”
Though a ban on modified fish in the U.S. would not legally stop other countries from pursuing the biotechnology, Hasquet said the hope is that the strong reaction by the U.S. in opposition would sway other countries. A statement titled “Organizations and Businesses Endorsing Senators Murkowski and Begich’s Bipartisan Amendment to Bar FDA from Approving Genetically Engineered Fish” had 93 signatures as of Oct 7.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276.
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Isn't this the hi tech change we've waited for? I guess the technology will be shipped to Chile or Thailand where cheap protein can be provided for a hungry planet.
Farmed fish was "safe" too
Seattle Times
U.S. senators seek new study of deadly salmon virus
Posted by Craig Welch
State and federal scientists concerned about news that two wild sockeye smolts have been found carrying a highly contagious virus related to one that killed millions of farmed salmon in Chile agree on this: they need more information.
Three Northwest senators want them to get it.
Late Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich asked Congress to require federal agencies to research the risks and threats from the discovery and report back on their findings within six months.
The senators are proposing an amendment to an agricultural appropriations bill that would kick off an emergency research effort to figure out how much of a threat the virus may pose to wild, hatchery and farmed salmon in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California.
“We need to act now to protect the Pacific Northwest’s coastal economy and jobs," Cantwell said in a statement. "Infectious salmon anemia could pose a serious threat to Pacific Northwest wild salmon and the thousands of Washington state jobs that rely on them. We have to get a coordinated game plan in place to protect our salmon and stop the spread of this deadly virus.”
The proposed amendment comes just two days after researchers at Simon Fraser University announced the results of laboratory testing that revealed two of 48 sockeye smolts tested from Rivers Inlet in northern British Columbia were carrying infectious salmon anemia, also known as ISA. It's the first time the virus -- which in its virulent form has been found to be deadly to Atlantic salmon, but harmless to humans -- has been documented along the Pacific Coast.
Fish-virus experts from the U.S. Geological Survey to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife called the discovery alarming even while they acknowledged the tests results don't make clear how wide-ranging the virus is. The results also have not yet been confirmed by additional testing.
"We found sequences of this virus in two samples of wild sockeye -- that's all," said Fred Kibenge, the highly regarded scientist who performed the tests. "There was no link to disease, no indication of a massive outbreak, and we don't know if it's virulent or not.
But anytime it's present you have the potential for an outbreak.
"This is probably the single most-feared virus in the fish industry," he said. "ISA is a very dangerous disease."
The virus first surfaced in farmed Atlantic salmon in Norway in the early 1980s and since has ranged as far as Scotland and Chile and northeastern North America.
So far, there's no evidence this virus has ever harmed wild salmon populations, even wild Atlantic salmon populations. James Winton, a fish virologist at USGS in Seattle, found several years ago that several species of Pacific salmon exposed to the virus in a lab were resistant to disease.
But the virus is a fast killer of farmed Atlantic salmon, which are reared by the tens of millions in net pens in British Columbia. And it also has great potential to mutate, which raises concerns about its impact on wild salmon.
"The big question is, if it does adapt, how serious will the direct mortality be?" asked Winton.
"But more concerning is Pacific salmon just don’t need another threat. Adding one more even relatively minor disease issue on top of all the other threats they face could be pretty serious. And if the disease got into hatcheries or other populations undergoing other stressors, it could be much worse."
Right now, though, "we just don't know enough."
Cantwell's amendment would not seek new money, but would direct an interagency team of scientists within the Commerce, Agriculture and Interior departments to make it a priority to gauge the prevalence of the virus, discover transmission pathways and figure out management strategies to deal with the potential threat.
What now!
The genie's already out of the bottle;probably released with Federal grant dollars. Isn't it better for the US to oversee this industry;isn't it better for the US to oversee development of world class resource projects(Pebble,offshore oil, natural gas,coal) ? Or should we just say no and let China and other unregulated nations take the lead?
Good to see...
...our two senators working together. Beats a bunch of partisan posturing for political ends. Hope we see more of it.
Eh, I'm always leery of
Eh, I'm always leery of politicians deciding what science can and can not do. They're not the most informed bunch.
Keep options open
Like the previous post said, the Genie is out of the bottle and bio-engineered fish as well as other food staples will increase due to dwindling resources and and exploding human population. The US can lead or follow. In the meantime, I'm going to avoid salmon with flat heads, bolts on their necks, and large boots!
The best laid plans
Aft gang agley