GMO Salmon Production Fails as AquaBounty Turns to Non-GMO Salmon Egg Sales

In a major turn-around, the US company AquaBounty says it will stop producing its controversial genetically modified Atlantic salmon in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada.

“This is a huge victory for everyone in PEI and across Canada who protested against this dangerous technology,” said Sharon Labchuk of the coalition GMO Free PEI. “Genetically modified fish are unnecessary and risky.”

AquaBounty has decided it will no longer produce GM fish in Canada, after raising just two “cohorts” of its GM salmon at their only Canadian production site, on land at Rollo Bay, PEI. This facility was the world’s first purpose-built GM fish factory. The decision was reported in the seafood industry media SeafoodSource, quoting the company’s CEO, Sylvia Wulf.

The company says it will now convert its Rollo Bay site to producing non-GM salmon eggs for aquaculture companies, though AquaBounty will continue to produce GM salmon eggs in PEI for grow-out at its remaining GM salmon factory in Indiana, US. AquaBounty is in the first stages of building a second GM salmon “tank farm” in Ohio, US, though local people are opposing construction.