Transgenic salmon have been around for years. There are growth hormone enhnaced chinook, coho, and atlantic salmon that I am aware of.

It looks like a real maketing push to get these fish to market. This is the first transgenic animal to be put forward as food. I suspect if will fail, not based on its own merits or lack thereof but but because of activist hype.
IF the firs t plant put forward is any precendent this will fail. The flavr savr tomato was a brilliant product (a trangenic tomato that didn't rot) The shelf life was weeks instead of days and they were at least as good as normal tomatoes as far as flavor. It was on the market for a year and was ultimately killed by the activists. Now there are dozens of transgenic plants on the market and you eat them every day. So unless there is a dramatic paradigm shift we will have transgenic fish in the market sooner or later.

As for the science, it appears sound to me.
I am all for it. With the burgeoning population and a high and ever increasing demand for seafood, we as anglers need to be concerned that the demand can be met. It is clear that the wild supply of fish is limited at best and in decline in most places. This technology may fill the gap and take some of the pressure off of wild fish.


This will be great for aquaculture and will result in higher yields per pound of feed. These transgenic fish aren't super fish, they just grow faster.

As for the alleged threats to wild salmon. I am sure that wild salmon evovled with optimal growth rates for the environment. These transgenic fish need to eat all the time. In the wild fish have to hunt for food and can't eat at will. Transgenic fish won't be able to compete with wild fish when it comes to foraging for food. I think the reduced pressure on wild fish stocks will more than offset any potential risks to wild fish.

While the methods to create these fish are decidedly high tech, the results are bronze age animal husbandry. You want a faster growing fish, you could easily obatin the same results by conventional animal breeding (genetics) just select for the fasting growing fish for 20+ generations. But who wants to wait 20+ salmon generations (80+ years). Biotech gets the same results in 1 generation. If have enhanced growth hormone expression were really a selective advantage, salmon have had a million generations to evolve it and they haven't .

I think these growth hormone fish are safe and should be approved. That doesn't mean the next transgenic fish should be approved. They need to be studied on a case by case basis.