In Canada, genetically modified salmon made to grow larger but not eat as much food as other salmon are now on sale. Even though approved for sale in the U.S. in 2015, the GMO salmon is not available in the U.S. yet because Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) added a provision to the 2017 US budget that prohibits its sale until the producer, Massachusetts-based AquaBounty, finds a way to let customers know through labeling that it is genetically modified, which AquaBounty has not done yet. Environmental groups fear the impact the fish can have on wild salmon if they escape their tanks in eastern Canada, but AquaBounty says that won’t happen since the engineered fish are sterile.
The engineered salmon was developed in the 1990s and has a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon to grow faster and a regulatory gene from ocean pout to keep that growth hormone working.