Aqua Bounty Technologies cleared up several points of a recent article on its genetically modified salmon. (Photo: Aqua Bounty)

Aqua Bounty speaks out on GM salmon

PANAMA
Thursday, January 14, 2010, 21:40 (GMT + 9)

The Authority on Aquatic Resources of Panama (ARAP) has not ratified the order to destroy the genetically modified salmon stocks produced by the company Aqua Bounty Technologies. According to Henry Clifford, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Aqua Bounty Technologies, the information provided to FIS.com for an 11 January article was incorrect.

The company executive clarified that the company Lamasur is not associated with salmon production and that ARAP had not actually ratified an order to destroy the fish. 

Panama's role in the Cartagena Protocol simply prescribes the process for conducting research and risk assessment; it does not prohibit eventual utilization of this technology, stated Clifford to FIS.com. The experimental fish are confined in a series of more than twenty levels of biological and physical containment, and were never intended for release into the environment, he noted. 
 
Moreover, Aqua Bounty's fish do not grow larger than conventional Atlantic salmon, which reach body weights of more than four kilos, Clifford pointed out. They simply reach their mature weight in a shorter time.
 
"Most of the growth rate increase for Aqua Bounty salmon occurs in the first year of life, a great advantage over unmodified Atlantic salmon," the Sales and Marketing executive noted. 

Clifford clarified that Aqua Bounty salmon are raised and located in multiple, redundant containment units in a mountain community, approximately 80 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean and without direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.

The number of salmon cited as being raised in the location was also deemed incorrect by the Aqua Bounty spokesman. 

Related article:

- Genetically modified salmon condemned

By Denise Recalde
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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