{"id":4373,"date":"2025-01-29T01:10:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T01:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/?p=4373"},"modified":"2025-01-29T01:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T01:10:37","slug":"gm-salmon-company-aquabounty-shuts-down-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/29\/gm-salmon-company-aquabounty-shuts-down-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"GM salmon company AquaBounty shuts down operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GMWatch Home<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Closed<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its \u201conly remaining operating farm\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"LostThe troubled biotechnology company AquaBounty has announced it will stop production of all genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon and is closing its last working facility, at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, reports<\/a> Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re glad to see the back of this company after over twenty years of our protests against genetically modified food,\u201d said Sharon Labchuk of GMO Free PEI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AquaBounty released the world\u2019s first GM food animal \u2013 a GM salmon \u2013 onto the market in 2017 but is now culling the last of its fish. Yesterday, the company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its \u201conly remaining operating farm\u201d at Bay Fortune and its chief executive officer, David Melbourne, has resigned.(1)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis struggling company has survived largely due to investor hype along with decades of government funding and the support of the federal policy to deny consumers mandatory labelling of GM food. The company couldn\u2019t make producing GM salmon viable even with all the government subsidies and supportive policies,\u201d said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of CBAN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AquaBounty\u2019s announcement comes just weeks after the federal and PEI governments announced $231,095 in joint funding for the company.(2) Just last week, CBAN wrote to the Auditor General of Canada and of PEI and to the federal and provincial ministers of fisheries to object to this use of funds and request a review of government decision-making in continued funding for AquaBounty.(3) AquaBounty still owes the Government of Prince Edward Island at least $1.5-million from a 2018 loan of $2.7-million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd so ends a science experiment which never should have started because of the risk to wild Atlantic salmon. As they shut their operations in PEI, we encourage the company to ensure that all genetically modified fish and eggs are safely culled to ensure there is no risk of escape in the closing days,\u201d says Mark Butler, Senior Advisor at Nature Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2023, AquaBounty announced it was closing its purpose-built GM salmon production facility at Rollo Bay, PEI, and put the building up for sale in September 2024. In July 2024, the company sold its other major GM salmon production facility, in Indiana, US. The company is now shutting down its remaining, smaller facility at Bay Fortune in PEI which it said would be used to produce GM salmon eggs for its not-yet-built facility in Ohio, US. Construction of the Ohio site has been on hold since 2023 and AquaBounty now says it is assessing \u201calternatives for our Ohio farm project\u201d while the company continues to sell its assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(1) AquaBounty, Press Release: AquaBounty Announces Plans to Cease Fish Farming Operations, December 11, 2024. https:\/\/investors.aquabounty.com\/news-releases\/news-release-details\/aquabounty-announces-plans-cease-fish-farming-operations<\/a>
(2) Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Press Release: Government of Canada and Province of Prince Edward Island announce funding for 39 companies to help improve quality, productivity and sustainability in the provincial fish and seafood sector, November 13, 2024.
https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/fisheries-oceans\/news\/2024\/11\/government-of-canada-and-province-of-prince-edward-island-announce-funding-for-39-companies-to-help-improve-quality-productivity-and-sustainability.html<\/a>
(3) Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, RE: Request to investigate decisions to provide public funds to AquaBounty, Letter, December 2, 2024. https:\/\/cban.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Investigation-request-re-funding-for-AquaBounty-Dec-2-2024-CBAN.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update on GM Salmon, CBAN, September 2024. www.cban.ca\/GMsalmonupdate2024<\/a>
Press release – December 2, 2024: Federal and PEI Governments Prop Up Failing GM Salmon Company
https:\/\/cban.ca\/federal-and-pei-governments-prop-up-failing-gm-salmon-company\/<\/a>
Press Release – October 2, 2024: GM Fish Factory in P.E.I. for Sale: Taxpayers Should Get Their Money Back https:\/\/cban.ca\/gm-fish-factory-in-p-e-i-for-sale-taxpayers-should-get-their-money-back\/<\/a>
www.cban.ca\/fish<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GMWatch Home Company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its \u201conly remaining operating farm\u201d The troubled biotechnology company AquaBounty has announced it will stop production of all genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon and is closing its last working facility, at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, reports Canadian Biotechnology<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t Read more<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[153,1006],"class_list":["post-4373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmo","tag-gmo","tag-gmo-fish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4374,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4373\/revisions\/4374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fitadelphia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}