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'Super-Salmon' Alert in Chile |
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By Gustavo González*
Salmon farmers in this South American country oppose the development of genetically modified fish due to the negative perception consumers have of transgenic products, but ecologists fear that legal loopholes will facilitate the entry of 'super-salmon' nevertheless.
SANTIAGO - The lack of a clear legal framework could facilitate the introduction of ''super-salmon'' in Chile, say environmental groups, while government experts report that salmon producers are against the development of transgenic varieties of fish.
The so-called super-salmon is genetically modified to grow to twice the size of its conventional cousins. ''This fish carries out the feat of 'growing itself to death' and consumes just one third of the food that a biologically normal salmon would consume,'' points out Marcel Claude, an expert in environmental economy and head of the Chile-based Terram Foundation.
Marisol Alvarez and Marcelo Campos, of the Aquiculture Department at the Chilean Subsecretariat of Fishing, explained to Tierramérica that the creation of this controversial salmon began some 20 years ago.
At that time, a Canadian scientist froze a tank holding several species of fish, killing all of them except the flounder, which produces a protein that serves as a sort of antifreeze.
The genes sensitive to cold were removed from the DNA of those fish and implanted in a control gene to observe their growth. The gene used came from an Atlantic salmon, according to the aquiculture experts.
The insertion of this genetic material into salmon eggs permitted the development of a fish that, when the waters turn cold and dark, produce hormones in the liver that allow it to maintain the pace of its metabolism and continue to grow rapidly, said Alvarez and Campos.
They stressed that genetic improvement is an ongoing concern in the Chilean salmon industry, whose expansion since the 1990s has made it a world leader, second only to Norway.
Salmon farming in Chile represented exports of 970 million dollars in 2000, and this year are expected to top a billion dollars. Analysts calculate that continued expansion of the industry will mean exports of three billion dollars annually by 2010.
Rodrigo Infante, general manager of the Association of Salmon and Trout Producers, predicts that world demand for salmon will double during the next decade and that Chile should triple its output, requiring a rise in aquiculture concessions from 350 to 1,100 permits.
The Terram Foundation and the Eco-Oceans Center, the latter led by biologist Juan Carlos Cárdenas, are two Chilean organizations that oppose such dramatic growth, saying the expansion of the salmon industry in Chile has high ecological costs.
The two groups created the Parliament of the Sea, an environmental lobby group that claims the support of the 42,000 members of Chile's Confederation of Small Fishing Operations.
One of the objectives of this group is to establish ties between the communities that work in the salmon sectors in Alaska, Norway, Scotland and Chile, in order to standardize labor and environmental rules.
The lack of regulations for importing salmon eggs is, according to Terram Foundation, one of the environmental legislation loopholes in Chile that could pave the way for the introduction of the super-salmon.
The Chilean ecologists echoed a campaign begun in May in the United States by environmental and consumer groups calling for a ban on the marketing of the genetically modified fish and for in-depth studies on its potential effects on human health and the environment.
Arnold Sutterlin, head of Aqua Bounty Farms, which develops super-salmon varieties, told The Wall Street Journal on May 11 that his company is offering Chilean firms licenses for the product.
But Sutterlin pointed out that the implementation of any such projects would require the approval of the product and its marketing by the US authorities and by the Chilean government.
Alvarez and Campos pointed out that, in Chile, most salmon producers have declared their opposition to the development of transgenic fish due to the negative perception consumers hold of such products.
This opposition is also a result of the impact of transgenic products on the market, the potential effects on the environment if the super-salmon were to escape and breed with natural salmon, and the loss of comparative advantage that Chilean salmon-culture has in the international context, say the two specialists.
There exist more innocuous and feasible methods of genetic improvement that can boost productivity, said Alvarez and Campos, stressing that the rejection of genetically modified salmon is widespread among fish farmers worldwide.
Nevertheless, Chile has no clear legal guidelines with respect to genetically modified organisms, they said.
There does exist a regulation requiring environmental impact studies for activities that intend to introduce flora, fauna or genetically modified or manipulated species into Chilean territory.
Other criteria that should be implemented in this country are based on recommendations of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
These recommendations involve informing consumers about the application of genetic manipulation, implementation of genetic technologies aimed at conserving biodiversity and orienting the community about the environmental and health implications of these practices, report Alvarez and Campos.
* Gustavo González is an IPS correspondent.
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