GMO Fish are Not the Answer to Overfishing

By now, you’ve probably heard that fishing is destroying the world’s oceans.  It destroys coral reefs, kills megafauna like dolphins, and adds almost as much plastic as every other garbage source combined.  That’s not to mention, of course, the 1.2 trillion aquatic animals killed every year for food, which depletes entire ecosystems.

The solution is simple: stop eating fish and stop fishing. But humans continue looking for shortcuts and workarounds, which, in the case of fish, means genetically modifying fish and raising them through aquaculture.  Unfortunately, aquaculture just makes fish The New Factory Farmed Animals.  (You can see for yourself by watching this heartbreaking footage from an undercover investigation into Cooke Aquaculture into Bingham, Maine.) And genetic modification doubles down on the problem.

A new article by Allison Briggs, a legal intern at Animal Outlook, details the problematic Rise of GMO Salmon.  As the article breaks down, GMO salmon:

1. Is bad for animal welfare because it causes salmon to grow unnaturally quickly and develop painful deformations and diseases.
2. Harms the environment through runoff waste, which is a “hotbed” for disease and parasites.
3. Deceives and harms consumers, who unknowingly purchase GMO salmon at restaurants and therefore risk exposure to allergens not found in wild salmon.

Nonetheless, GMO salmon was the first GMO animal that the FDA approved for sale in the United States.  If people don’t start pushing back on this “solution” to overfishing the world’s natural fish supply, we are certain to shift from one destructive system to another.

Sign this petition to demand that Biden and Congress work together to save our oceans, our marine animals, and our Earth by banning single-use plastics throughout the entire United States!

You can learn more about overfishing right here in One Green Planet:

• How Overfishing is Destroying the Rainforests of the Ocean
• What Are the Global Consequences of Overfishing and Why Should You Care
• Overfishing Has Gotten So Out of Hand That Dolphins Are Breaking Into Fishing Nets for Food
• The Environmental and Public Health Impact of Commercial Fish Farming
• WOW! Survey Finds 46% of Ocean Plastic Is Made of Discarded Fishing Nets
• Fish: The New Factory Farmed Animals
• Respect for Fish Day: Planet’s Most Abused Animals Can’t Run Or Scream

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