It's very, very difficult, if not impossible to guarantee that all fish are sterile. However, Entis, along with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' aquaculture science director Iola Price are less prone to scientific skepticism. Let's not close our eyes to science. The worry is that tens of thousands of fish already escape from aquaculture farm netpens every year, and so transgenic fish would be bound to assail wild fish populations. Whether or not fish are kept in tanks or netpens is the responsibility of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Price says no transgenic fish are currently reared in netpens.
She adds that the regulation they are proposing in relation to netpens would try to minimise the potential for escape from netpens and also to take into account the sterility of fish. The rapidly dwindling population of the Atlantic salmon may make it the first transgenic fish ever commercialised. In 1999, only 80,000 multi-sea winter Atlantic salmon who had spent more than one winter at sea returned to North American rivers. Playing with genetics Because of the insertion of an additional gene, Aquabounty's transgenic fish grow 200 per cent faster. Entis hopes to sell his company's eggs to salmon farmers who grow fish in netpens along Atlantic coastal land.