The salmon were not growing quickly enough, they observed. In 1989, that was. One company with an idea was AquaBounty.
They picked a genetic switch from ocean pout and a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon.
Though basic in theory, the genetic modification was revolutionary in reality. The genetic switch of the ocean pout maintained the Chinook growth hormone active all year long.
In nature, salmon grow only in warm seasons. This was distinctive. These fish flourished in winter as well. Their growth doubled that of their wild cousins.
The modified ones reach market size in 18 months instead of 36. Millions of years were needed for nature to perfect salmon growth. Man changed it in a decade-the ramifications are dramatic.
Scientists inject the fresh genes into salmon eggs. The DNA of fish starts to include the genes. Each cell carries these.
The salmon generate continual higher levels of growth hormone.
They eat the same feed as normal salmon but convert it to flesh more efficiently-like turning a seasonal worker into a year-round factory.
Critics called them "Frankenfish." These aren't monsters though. They're the same Atlantic salmon with two additional genes.
Twenty years of research yielded FDA approval of them in 2015. They turned up no proof of any damage to human health. Wild salmon cannot breed with the altered salmon.
All of them are sterile, female. AquaBounty grows them in tanks on land. There is total containment.
Although justified, the worry about environmental impact is unfounded.
Nature remains separate and untouched.
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