AquaBounty reduces role of genetically engineered salmon facilities on P.E.I.

AquaBounty will no longer be producing fully-grown genetically engineered salmon for sale as food at its operations on P.E.I.

Sylvia Wulf, CEO of the Massachusetts-based company, said P.E.I.'s role in the international company's work, in Rollo Bay and Bay Fortune, will be to manage brood stock and provide eggs to grow-out facilities in Indiana and Ohio.

The P.E.I. facility was built as a demonstration farm, said Wulf, and is too small to continue producing salmon for market.

"Because it is challenged from a scale perspective, the more that we thought about the competence from our team and how that farm was built, we recognized that it was perfect for us to continue to farm brood stock there and harvest eggs," she said.

The last P.E.I. salmon grown for market was sold in August, Wulf said.

The change does not mean any layoffs, she said, and all 37 employees on the Island will keep their jobs.

Sales in Canada will continue

AquaBounty salmon are genetically engineered to grow much faster than regular salmon, using less feed. They are bred and grown in an enclosed facility to ensure they do not escape into the environment.

There have been objections to the company's product, but Wulf said the fish has been found to be safe for consumption in both Canada and the U.S., and that the company has been subject to 25 years of regulatory approvals and safety testing.

Canada does not require fish sold to the public to be labelled as genetically modified.

Salmon from AquaBounty's Indiana plant continues to be sold in Canada, said Wulf, adding that how much is being sold is proprietary information. In 2018, AquaBounty investors were told the company had sold 4.5 tonnes of salmon in the Canadian market.

Information about the company's customers is also proprietary, she said. She added that AquaBounty deals with seafood wholesalers, and she does not know where consumers may be purchasing the fish.

Nature Canada senior advisor Mark Butler is glad to hear that AquaBounty will no longer be producing fully-grown genetically engineered salmon on the Island.

"I feel that's great news," he said. "I think it's sending the message, to some extent, that we don't need this fish."

Butler would ultimately like to see more stringent rules in place at the federal level to regulate the production of genetically engineered animals, and clear labelling guidelines for genetically engineered animals for human consumption.