Information on Fish & Sustainability

 

Download OCA's GMO Salmon Flyer

Please download OCA's "50% Off GMO Salmon" flyer. Pass it out to your friends, at the fish market, the grocery store or a seafood restaurant.
Catch people's reactions when they learn that genetically engineered animals could soon be approved by the FDA and encourage them to learn more and take action.
Download the Flyer here. (PDF format)

• If printed back to back, the flyer can be cut into four separate 'coupons'
  

GMO Salmon Flyer Text

If you had a coupon for 50% off your first taste of genetically modified salmon, would you try it?

What if you knew that the FDA had studies -- from AquaBounty, the company that wants to commercialize GMO salmon -- that showed that GMO salmon is:
MORE ALLERGENIC: GMO salmon have mean allergenic potencies that are 20% and 52% higher than normal salmon.
MORE CARCINOGENIC: GMO salmon has 40% more IGF1, a hormone linked to prostate, breast and colon cancers in humans.
LESS NUTRITIOUS: GMO salmon has the lowest omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of any salmon.
LIKELY TO CHANGE THE BACTERIA OF YOUR GUT: Horizontal gene transfer, where the bacteria of the human gut takes up modified DNA from GMO foods during digestion, has been shown occur with soy and is likely to happen with GMO salmon, too.
ALL MESSED UP: GMO salmon has increased frequency of skeletal malformations like "humpback" spinal compression, increased prevalence of jaw erosions or "screamer disease," and multisystemic, focal inflammation in its tissues.
NOT GOING TO SAVE WILD SALMON: The main justification for GMO salmon is that it could reduce the pressure on wild fish stocks, but consumption isn't the primary pressure on wild Alaskan salmon, destruction of their habitat is.

"Organic" Farmed Salmon Basics

Because of the lack of US standards for organic salmon, farmed "organic" salmon is farmed in an open net cage system, the same system used for conventional farmed salmon.

In turn, what we're relatively certain of is that the organic farmed salmon for sale today:

• Ate wild fish for feed (though the make up of the diet can vary considerably)
• The farm provided no complete barrier between farmed fish and the marine environment
• The farm did not contain wastes - uneaten feed, feces and possibly harmful chemicals
• The farm did not prevent the transmission of diseases and parasites to/from wild fish

Also, depending on where your fish came from, it is also possible that it was:

• Treated with toxic chemicals (some like Cypermethrin and Emamectin benzoate classified as "marine pollutants") used to kill parasites called sea lice
• Treated with antibiotics at some stage of its life cycle
• Fed wild fish products that did not come from certified sustainable sources
• Fed feed that was not tested for or cleaned of PCBs, dioxins and other contaminants
• From a farm site that experienced escapes of farmed fish into the environment