AquaBounty Fined for Violations on GE Salmon

Officials in Panama have fined AquaBounty Technologies $9,500, stating the facility is operating in violation of environmental regulations as it experiments with genetically engineered (GE) salmon.  Food safety advocates such as Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth have ask the FDA to terminate its regulatory review of AquaBounty’s facility and deny the company’s application to sell the engineered fish in the U.S.

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch said, “FDA has always assured the public that it is checking, monitoring, and regulating AquaBounty’s production platform to ensure the company can mitigate the well-documented environmental impacts of escaped GE salmon. We now know that AquaBounty is unwilling or unable to follow basic rules and regulations, and FDA is unable or unwilling to enforce them. It’s time to put an end to this dangerous experiment.”

The Panamanian National Environmental Authority’s decision was in response to a complaint filed in 2013 by a Panamanian environmental organization. Some of the regulations that AquaBounty violated include failing to secure permits relating to water use and water discharge before beginning operations.

George Kimbrell, senior attorney for Center for Food Safety said, “AquaBounty has not been able to follow the law, because it lacks the capacity, sophistication, will, or all of the above. This decision is also even further proof that FDA is dangerously out of touch with the facts on the ground, advancing AquaBounty’s application based on its promises, not reality.”

FDA has not made a regulatory decision about AquaBounty’s GE salmon. If the fish is approved it would be the first engineered animal to enter the food supply anywhere in the world. Critics of the company and of GMO foods are afraid that AquaBounty chose the Panama location for its facility to evade scrutiny. Other issues at that facility include a storm-related accident that lead to “lost” salmon.