Fast-Growing Farmed Salmon

Fast-growing farmed salmon were developed in order to meet the world's ever increasing need for more food. With more people wanting an abundance of salmon for a healthy diet or because they enjoy consuming it, the demand for the product is continuing to grow. In my opinion creating fast-growing farmed salmon was a bad idea. I think this because it has more bad effects on society and the environment than it does good. Fast-growing farmed salmon may keep many people happy by being available all year round and allowing people to consume as much as they want, but it also has many negative effects on people and society. Fast-growing farmed salmon can possibly lead to more allergic reactions and new allergies, and the use of chemicals such as antibiotics, anti-foulants, pesticides and other banned chemicals have the ability to have unintended consequences for the health of both humans and marine organisms. This product may even be telling the public lies. Research by a Canadian organization, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) says that,”The GM "fast-growing"salmon is more susceptible to disease, may not actually grow any faster, and it looks like the genetic modification is causing inconsistent growth rates.” If this research is correct then AquaBounty (the company that founded fast-growing farmed salmon) may be lying to the public and future consumers. There are also many ethical issues associated with fast-growing farmed salmon such as not labeling the product as genetically modified so that consumers can make informed decisions, the genetically modified salmon suffering from deformities and health problems, unintended effects on allergies, long term health effects from the chemicals used to create the salmon and much more. In relation with the environment fast-growing farmed salmon is environmentally friendly in only a few ways. One of these ways is how it allows less harvesting of wild salmon (which is only available at certain times of the year) which means that there will be more salmon in the wild. AquaBounty ensures that it's fish farms are “only located in deep waters and areas of good tidal movement”, are “strictly controlled in Canada by federal and provincial regulations” and are “subject to a comprehensive environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.” Although there are many claims of being environmentally friendly and positive towards the environment, there are many more bad effects on the environment. The farms that these genetically modified fish are located in, if poorly maintained, may spread disease and parasites and damage marine ecosystems with an overuse of chemicals and abundance of fish waste. The food to feed fast-growing salmon will also have a negative affect on marine ecosystems and animals due to the fact that these genetically modified salmon need up to five times the amount of food as wild salmon. With fast-growing farmed salmon there is also a risk for them to escape the farms and repopulate and compete with wild salmon, altering genetic patterns and consuming much of the native salmon's food. Overall I think that creating fast-growing farmed salmon was a bad idea for the many reasons explained above.

Sources:

http://www.cban.ca/Resources/Topics/GE-Fish

http://www.aquaculture.ca/files/GuidetoCanadianFarmedSalmon.pdf

http://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/farmed-salmon

http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/spawning-a-sustainable-industry-for-farm-raised-salmon