FEATURES
Wave s
Making
AquaBounty Technologies
Genetically modified and farm-raised “green” salmon swim
into the limelight.
By Clare Leschin-Hoar
AquaBounty is seeking FDA approval for
its genetically modified Atlantic salmon.
FOR A FISH that’s relatively easy
to prepare, the issues surrounding
salmon can often be confusing and
complex. Last year certainly had a
news stream full of salmon. There were
reports of low population returns in
California and parts of Oregon. Canada’s
Fraser River saw an unexpected boom
in salmon stocks that scientists say may
have been caused by a 2008 volcano
eruption. Concern over the impact
salmon hatcheries may be having on
wild salmon stocks is now being added
to the conversation, while arguments
over farm-raised versus wild-caught
remain turbulent.
Fisheries Institute’s “Top 10 Consumed
Seafoods” since the list’s inception in
2001. However you cook it, salmon
remains red-hot.
So important is salmon to the American
dinner plate that it’s held the No. 3 spot
on the McLean, Va.-based National
Let’s take a closer look at two very
different farm-raised salmon species:
a genetically modified Atlantic salmon
that’s swimming closer toward FDA
approval; and a farm-raised Pacific coho
