If the Food and Drug Administration approves AquaAdvantage salmon, it could be the first genetically modified animal product you eat. According to Aquabounty Technologies, the Massachusetts based company behind the transgenic salmon - the fish can grow to market size twice as fast as regular salmon. Industry experts say this will give consumers a healthy source of protein while reducing pressure on ocean salmon, whose stocks are already dwindling. The lack of conclusive evidence that the salmon is safe is not the only troubling thing about AquaAdvantage. While Aquabounty claims the fish would be grown only inland and only sterile females will be sold, limiting any ability to reproduce, environmentalists fear that there are no guarantees and that if transgenic fish escape they would undermine the population of the already vulnerable wild salmon. Environmentalists also fear that the FDA's approval of transgenic salmon would lead to other genetically modified animals produced for human consumption.
Learn more about overfishing and other risks to our oceans, and find out what you can do.
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