Legal challenge to GM salmon

Environmental groups have launched a lawsuit against the Canadian government approval for the commercial production of genetically modified salmon eggs.

The American company, Aqua Bounty Technologies, has an experimental production facility in Canada’s maritime province of Prince Edward Island. They have modified Atlantic salmon eggs with genes from chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout to create fish that grow twice as fast as normal.

The company has been seeking approval in the US since 1995, to produce the eggs for shipment to Panama to grow and sold to market.

Two months ago Environment Canada gave the green light for commercial-scale production of the GM eggs, as well as hatching and growing to adult size. The fish must be killed before leaving the plant and there is no approval to sell for human consumption,

A trio of groups, the Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans, and Ecojustice have launched a suit in Federal Court challenging the approval.

A spokeswoman for Ecology Action Centre said in an interview this week, that the Canadian decision, “is a global precedent in the first genetically modified food to be approved for grow-out and for human consumption”.

The groups are demanding the release of data used by the government in making its decision. They say the government did not follow its own rules to obtain and assess all information and perform a full risk assessment which is legally required before making such a decision. They also say allowing fish to hatch and grow to adult size was not reviewed by the DFO assessment.

Tanya Nayler, a lawyer for EcoJustice, told CBC News that testing should have been done to show the potential invasiveness of Aqua Bounty salmon, if they escape.

According to a Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) risk assessment, AquaBounty asked for a waiver to this proviso because the fish are in a contained facility.

Enviroment Canada has told reporters it will not comment on the matter as it is before the courts.