October 30, 2003

GM Fish Stir Concerns
 

Rising demand for fish puts pressure on global supply, more developing nations are turning to aquaculture or farmed fish.

But like other farmed animals and crops, farmed fish has also become a target for controversial genetic tinkering, which claims to be improving quality at the same time.

Genetically modified (GM) rainbow trout, carp, tilapia and abalone are now being developed around the world. Cuba, for instance, is involved in GM tilapia.

However since GM food has been suffering criticisms in the market because of concerns about safety, scientists have also been stepping up efforts to produce genetically improved breeds of fish.

Saying that their works has nothing to do with GM, these scientists use biotechnology means such as sex manipulation, polyploidy, hybridization and genetic changes.

These also make the fish more amenable to patenting than the more traditional selective breeding, say some researchers. "The trend towards the patenting of fish genetic resources, and even the patenting of new breeds of fish is accelerating," observed researcher Anna Rosa Martinez, in a study commissioned by the Chennai- and Brussels-based International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF).

The Barcelona-based researcher noted that the expectations of long-term productivity increases from the use of fish genetic resources have led to the extension of property rights over them, in a process that parallels that of plant genetic resources for agriculture.

Some of the other implications of farmed fish also raise ethical concerns, activists say. These include the potential loss of biodiversity, the threat of contamination of wild fish by farmed fish, and the outbreak of disease.

Many also worry about whether genetic research would lead to the patenting of strains of genetically improved fish and the transfer of "ownership" or commercial rights of such fish from the public to the private domain.