Environment Canada has published a significant new activity notice that will allow AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. to produce genetically modified (GM) salmon eggs. According to the company, the agency determined that GM salmon “is not harmful to the environment or human health when produced in contained facilities.” AquaBounty CEO Ron Stotish said, “This is a significant milestone in our efforts to make AquAdvantage® Salmon available for commercial production. However, our eggs and fish will not be available for sale until they are approved by the relevant national regulatory bodies.” The company notes that Environment Canada reached its conclusion “following a risk assessment conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada involving a panel of independent scientific experts knowledgeable in the fields of transgenics and fish containment technology.” See Canada Gazette, November 23, 2013; AquaBounty Technologies News Release, November 25, 2013.
Tag Archives fish
“A curious hurdle is threatening to complicate efforts by the United States to reach a major trade agreement with 11 Pacific nations by the end of the year: catfish,” reports New York Times writer Ron Nixon in a November 13, 2013, article describing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) new catfish inspection program has angered Vietnam, a member of the TransPacific Partnership and a major exporter of a catfish known as pangasius. Vietnamese trade officials have apparently written to Secretary of State John Kerry, the White House and Congress, criticizing the new inspection program as a trade barrier in disguise. “And it’s not even a good disguise; it’s clearly a thinly veiled attempt designed to keep out fish from countries like Vietnam,” Le Chi Dzung, the chief economic officer of the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Times. Intended to replace the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) catfish…
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published a final rule “to enhance the requirements for documentation to support labels on tuna products that represent the product as dolphin-safe.” According to NMFS, the rule “is intended to better ensure dolphin-safe labels comply with the requirements of the DPCIA [Dolphin Protection Consumer Identification Act] and to ensure that the United States satisfies its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).” Information about an adverse WTO ruling in a dispute with Mexico over U.S. dolphin-safe labeling provisions appears in Issue 424 of this Update. See Federal Register, July 9, 2013.
A federal court in California has ordered Bumble Bee Foods, LLC to produce “documents dating back to 2004 regarding the marketing and labeling strategies for the products [plaintiff] purchased and for products with the same Omega-3 label or with nearly identical labels” in a putative nationwide consumer-fraud class action. Ogden v. Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, No. 12-1828 (N.D. Cal., order entered April 16, 2013). The named plaintiff seeks to represent class members who purchased products she did not buy and purchased a product made by a separate company that is not a defendant in the case. According to the court, the discovery dispute was about whether Bumble Bee “must produce discovery on all of its products . . . from eight years prior to the initiation of this lawsuit . . . [and involving] King Oscar.” The court determined that it was not appropriate to consider whether the named plaintiff has…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently denied a citizen petition seeking to replace “the FDA action level of 1.0 parts per million (ppm) mercury in fish with an action level, regulatory limit or tolerance no greater than 0.5 ppm mercury in fish in order ‘to protect women of childbearing age, pregnant and nursing women, children and the most vulnerable populations.’” Filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Got Mercury, the petition also asked FDA, among other things, to (i) enforce the new limit “and/or prohibit the sale of seafood that contains mercury concentrations that exceed it,” (ii) require retailers to post point-of-sale warnings or otherwise label fish “known to be high in methylmercury,” and (iii) conduct “regular, widespread” testing for mercury and publicize the results. In denying the petition, FDA noted the agency is authorized “but not required” to set a tolerance, action level or regulatory limit for…
According to a recent study conducted by the nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana, as much as one-third of seafood sold in restaurants and grocery store is mislabeled. From 2010 to 2012, Oceana evidently collected more than 1,200 seafood samples from 674 retail outlets in 21 states to determine if they were correctly labeled. After conducting DNA tests, researchers allegedly found that one-third (33 percent) of the 1,215 samples analyzed nationwide were mislabeled under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. Oceana reports that, of the most commonly collected fish types, samples sold as snapper and tuna had the highest mislabeling rates (87 and 59 percent, respectively), with the majority of the samples identified by DNA analysis as something other than what was found on the label. Halibut, grouper, cod, and Chilean seabass were mislabeled between 19 and 38 percent of the time, while lower levels of mislabeling were noted among salmon (7…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended until April 26, 2013, the comment period for two draft environmental assessments of the proposed conditions of use submitted by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc., in support of a new animal drug application concerning a genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon and a preliminary finding of no significant impact for those specific conditions of use. FDA has pushed back the deadline in response to “a request for an extension to allow interested persons additional time to submit comments.” Additional details about the proposed rule appear in Issue 466 of this Update. See Federal Register, February 14, 2013.
The European Parliament has approved a major reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that aims to return fisheries “to sustainable stock levels” by 2020. According to a February 6, 2013, press release, the reforms will prevent member states “from setting quotas that are too high to be sustainable” and compel fishermen “to respect the ‘maximum sustainable yield’ (MSY), i.e., catch no more than a given stock can reproduce in a given year.” The revised CFP will also address how the industry treats “discards,” that is, “fish thrown back, usually because they are of an unwanted species or size,” by requiring fishing vessels “to land all catches in accordance with a schedule of specific dates for different fisheries, starting from 2014,” and by restricting landed catches of undersized fish “to uses other than human consumption.” In addition, the European Parliament has agreed to take a long-term approach to fishery management…
A federal court in California has determined that Asian-American interest organizations have not sustained their burden of showing that they are entitled to preliminarily enjoin the shark fin ban that took effect January 1, 2012, in the state. Chinatown Neighborhood Ass’n v. Brown, No. 12-3759 (N.D. Cal., decided January 2, 2013). Additional details about the case appear in Issue 447 of this Update. The court found that the plaintiffs were unlikely to prevail on their claims of discrimination against the Chinese-American community that uses shark fins in traditional dishes served at many banquets and special events. Finding that the state had a rational basis to impose limits on shark finning and that the state regulations did not overlap federal restrictions, the court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently drawn criticism over the delayed release of documents evaluating the environmental impact of genetically engineered (GE) salmon. Created by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies, the GE salmon in question evidently contain genes from Chinook salmon as well as ocean pout that allow the company to bring the fish to market in half the normal time. After a publicly contentious review process, FDA released the May 4, 2012, draft assessment and a preliminary finding of no significant impact in late December, raising questions among groups such as the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) about whether the agency froze the application to avoid political turmoil during the election season. “The delay, sources within the government say, came after meeting with the White House, which was debating the political implications of approving the [GE] salmon, a move likely to infuriate a portion of its base,” GLP Executive Director…
