AquaBounty Technologies, a U.S.-based company with a plant in P.E.I., plans to sell its genetically modified salmon eggs to any approved fish farmer if it gets regulatory approval.

These salmon are the same age, but one is genetically engineered to grow twice as fast. (AquaBounty)The AquaBounty experimental fish plant in Bay Fortune, P.E.I., produces the genetically modified Atlantic salmon eggs. Implanted genes make the fish grow at twice the natural rate.

AquaBounty has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the fish for commercial sale as food. If the company is successful, the salmon would be the first genetically modified food animal on the market.

Some environmentalists worry about the possibility of GM salmon breeding with wild salmon. AquaBounty says all its salmon are female, most are sterile, and they would be raised in land-based facilities.

Proponents of farmed fish also say that raising fish in captivity has a lower impact on the environment than capturing wild fish from the world's oceans.

Would you eat genetically modified salmon? Would you want to know if the fish you buy came from genetically modified eggs? Let us know what you think.



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