Do you like fish? If so, you may just like AquAdvantage, which I believe is the official trademark for the futuristic-sounding but very real genetically-engineered fish just developed for human consumption. Thus far, AquAdantage has not been approved by the FDA, but may very well be in the future, which is a frightening prospect for many reasons.
If you are a thinking person at all, you are probably wondering about the health and environmental consequences of possibly introducing a man-made species into our ponds, lakes, streams, and mouths. Many organizations have already written a letter to President Obama asking him to stop the ongoing FDA approval process- so far, there is no word from the president as to whether or not he will take defensive action on this issue.
AquaBounty Technology, who are the evil geniuses behind the new technology, claim that the major advantage to the company's new and rather creepy fish is that it grows to maturity in roughly a year less than farmed salmon (which are incidentally also an environmental risk) and that their company is actually contributing to the "Blue Revolution".
How are the fish (loving described here as Frankenfish) made?
"To create the fish, AquaBounty begins with eggs of GE Atlantic salmon females and fertilizes them with irradiated sperm of another similar fish species, Arctic char. The eggs are then pressure-treated, causing them to produce diploid offspring (i.e. fish with two complete sets of chromosomes), with both sets of chromosomes originating from the GE female salmon. The all-female GE diploid salmon will then be treated with 17-methyltestosterone, a hormone that turns the fish into what AquaBounty calls "neomales" -- genetically female fish that produce milt (sperm) instead of eggs. The milt from the GE neomales will fertilize the eggs of non-GE Atlantic salmon, and the resulting fertilized eggs will be treated with pressure to produce the final product, a line of all-female triploid GE Atlantic salmon."
AquaBounty is intent on keeping their AquAdvantage fish safe from their competitors and are trying to ensure that all of the fish are sterile females so that they will not be able to procreate.
As I read more about the fish, I had the strange feeling that I was reading a Philip K. Dick short story or watching an episode from The Twilight Zone. Why would anyone want to eat man-made fish? Could genetically-engineered fish ever be considered safe? Even in the flawed studies by AquaBounty, a majority of the fish had physical deformities and inflamed tissue, which would potentially mean a higher incidence of anti-biotics.
And, like most people, I am scared of what the science behind genetically-engineered animals will lead to in the future.