Kyoto, Japan-based Regional Fish Institute is now selling gene-edited pufferfish to the public – one of the first times a gene-edited seafood product was offered over-the-counter to Japanese consumers.

The company’s online store has been offering the product since it gained government approval in 2021. The sale of gene-edited fish is part of a wider trend in Japan toward the new technology.

Unlike the European Union, Japan has had a more positive view of the use of gene editing in food. In 2018, the European Court of Justice ruled that all organisms produced by biotechnology were to be considered GMOs, and to be regulated as such. Accordingly, they must go through rigorous safety testing at the E.U. level. The E.U. public has also taken a different stance to genetically modified foods, as the use of genetic modification in some organisms is effectively banned in many countries.  

Following Brexit, the U.K. government is now pushing a genetic technology and precision breeding bill through Parliament. It would allow the setting of more-stringent rules for gene-edited crops and organisms than for GMO. However, those rules may be complicated by Scotland, which appears ready to assert that its devolved government can set its own rules on food safety.

In contrast to Europe's more conservative approach,, Japan has been more welcoming of gene-editing technology. In 2021, Japan’s government approved three gene-edited foods for commercial sale: a tomato with increased GABA content and two fish with faster growth and higher yield than their conventional counterparts.

Japan is not just allowing gene-editing, it is also funding it. In a 27 June press release, Regional Fish Institute announced that it had – along with Kyoto University and Tokyo Marine University – been awarded a government subsidy of JPY 97.5 million (USD 705,000, EUR 690,000) for research as a “year-2022 growth-type small and medium enterprise R&D support project.” The company will use the money to develop gene-edited tilapia and vannamei shrimp.

Japan has followed the lead of the U.S.A. and Canada in approving the sale of gene-edited foods with limited safety review, in contrast to the procedure for transgenic foods. In the former, an existing gene is deleted, or its effect reduced, while in the latter, new genetic material is introduced from another species. Transgenic foods pose a risk of introducing allergens into food products, while gene-edited foods contain no new genes, but rather deletion or the targeted mutation of a gene. It is also considered that changes of this scale sometimes occur randomly within the range of typical natural mutations.

In 2019, an advisory panel to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare recommended allowing gene-edited foodstuffs to be sold to consumers without safety evaluations, opening up new opportunities for such developments.

The stance has opened up the market for gene-edited fish, such as the two that were approved for sale in 2021. The two fish are a red sea bream lacking a myostatin gene which suppresses muscle growth, and a tiger pufferfish with its genes that control appetite removed. Both of the new fish were gene-edited using CRISPR gene-editing technology.

The fish were developed through a collaboration of Kyoto-based Regional Fish Institute, Kyoto University, and Kinki University; and Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The genome-edited red sea bream has 20 to 60 percent more edible yield than a conventional fish of the species, while feed utilization efficiency was increased by about 14 percent. It was introduced to the press by the universities under the nickname of “Muscle Madai” (madai means red sea bream in Japanese), but is being sold by Regional Fish Online as “22nd Century Sea Bream.” A set of about 16 thin slices on a bed of dried kelp is sold for JPY 3,000 (USD 21.69, EUR 21.24).

The genome-edited tiger pufferfish grows faster and achieves a 90 percent increase in weight over the conventional puffer in the same farming period. This allows a shortening of the farming period from the conventional two years. Sliced pufferfish sets are sold through the website in a variety of sizes and prices.

While faster weight gain and increased yield have been the goals of most gene-edited fish so far, other traits, such as disease resistance, are also possible. Plus, although the ease of use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system has been the trigger for an explosion in gene-editing, it is not the only choice for gene-editing, nor always the best.

A 2019 study in Japan, “Targeted mutagenesis of the ryanodine receptor by Platinum TALENs causes slow swimming behaviour in Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis)” the Platinum TALENs method of gene-editing was used rather than CRISPR to induce mutations in Pacific bluefin tuna. The change reduced the “burst swimming” ability of the tuna.

As a result, when the bluefin were disturbed by touching them, they swam away slowly, rather than with a burst of speed. Farm-raised tuna with burst swimming edited out may be less likely to break their necks by swimming at high speed into the walls of tanks and net pens, a common cause of mortality.

The trait has not yet been commercialized, but Japan’s farmed bluefin sector gained stronger footing in 2021, giving those pursuing the technology strong incentive to push their progress.

Photo courtesy of the Regional Fish Institute 

Chilean salmon and trout farmer Salmones Antártica has submitted four projects to the government’s Environmental Assessment Service to relocate part of its operations in the Aysén Region. Each project involves an investment of USD 4.5 million (EUR 4.4 million), bringing total investment to USD 18 million (EUR 17.6 million).

Salmones Antártica, established in 1982, is owned by Nippon Suisan America Latina, which in turn is part of the Japanese holding Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui). It has operations on Chiloe Island and in Puerto Aysen, Chile.

Relocating and merging operations is an issue that Chile’s entire USD 5 billion (EUR 4.9 billion) a year salmon fishing industry is facing, following a mandate issued by Chilean President Gabriel Boric, who took office in March 2022. SalmonChile President Arturo Clément has said that the organization’s domestic focus will be on consolidating operations and ensuring environmental sustainability.

“Today we have 1,300 concessions and use 400. We have to insist on a better territorial ordering where all the activities in the sea can have their space and development. In this sense, we want to continue promoting the process of mergers and relocation of concessions,” he said previously. “This is a process that has been 10 years in the making and we must continue working to have fewer but larger concessions, with a greater distance between each other, which is very normal from an environmental, health, and productive point of view.”

According to information submitted by Salmones Antártica to the Chilean government’s aquaculture authority, the company is seeking to adhere to new rules government aquaculture operations while maintaining alignment with its regional development strategy, which “seeks to strike the appropriate balance between economic growth, the improvement of the quality of life of the region’s inhabitants, and environmental stewardship.”

"In this context, the relocation projects of these salmonid-farming centers are fully integrated with the search for sustainable development, through an activity that has become a regional and national economic motor which has shown that it is feasible to develop by improving environmental standards," Salmones Antártica said.

The first project seeks to move part of the company’s Punta Angosta center, located in the borough of Aysén, to a 10-hectare area that has been deemed an appropriate area for the exercise of aquaculture at Canal Costa, located south of Caleta Tronador, in the province of Aysén.

At that site, Salmones Antártica has proposed building a new grow-out center for the production of 6,200 metric tons (MT) of Atlantic salmon per each 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos. The center would also include the production of coho salmon and rainbow trout, with a maximum production of 4,000 MT per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. Two modules are proposed for this operation, each with 10 rectangular pens measuring 30 meters in diameter, with a depth of 15 meters.

The second project involves moving part of the Punta Angosta center to a 9.9-hectare area also located in the borough and province of Aysén, in the sector of Canal Costa, south of Bahía Nauto. This center would produce 6,600 MT of Atlantic salmon per 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as production of 5,000 MT of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. Two modules are proposed, each with 10 rectangular pens.

The third proposal presented by Salmones Antártica would combine part of its San Sebastián center and part of the Punta Angosta center, both located in the borough of Aysén, and relocate them to a new 10-hectare concession located in the Canal Costa sector. This project proposes 4,000 MT of Atlantic salmon production per each 21-month cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as 2,750 MT of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle and a harvest weight of four kilos. It would also have two modules, each with 10 rectangular pens.

The fourth proposal also aims to merge and relocate part of the grow-out centers at San Sebastián and Punta Angosta, with relocation to a 10-hectare sector in Canal Costa, south of Bahía Nauto, for the production of 6,600 MT of Atlantic salmon per 21-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of 5.6 kilos, as well as 5,000 MT tons of coho salmon and rainbow trout per 14-month production cycle, with a harvest weight of four kilos. All of this project is to be carried out at sea, with the installation of 20 pens also measuring 30 meters in diameter, with a depth of 15 meters.

At the beginning of the year, the head of Chile’s Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca), Alicia Gallardo, outlined to the senate the government’s plans to relocate some 500 salmon farming concessions out of a total of 1,320 that the industry operates, with plans to merge some farming centers.

Chile’s total acreage devoted to salmon aquaculture is expected to be reduced by 18 percent, with larger centers being formed but with more distance between them. Gallardo said priority will be given to moving sites near the coastline and with water-recirculation problems. At the same time, Subpesca will continue reviewing sites or groups of salmon concessions that meet the characteristics for possible relocation. The idea is to have fewer, larger, and more-distant concessions to improve sustainability while facilitating the inspection of the sector.

In 2020, Salmones Antártica was issued a citation by SMA for exceeding its mortality storage capacity by 80 percent at three of its farming centers.

Photo courtesy of Fundación Chile

The seafood industry is firing back against recently published articles and books that are taking shots at the farmed salmon industry.

A recently published book, Salmon Wars, the Dark Underbelly of our Favorite Fish, has been gaining attention from some media outlets, including Bloomberg, which listed it among the 10 best summer books shedding light on “today’s most-pressing issues.” Written by Pulitzer Price-winning journalist Douglas Frantz and his wife – accomplished investigative journalist Catherine Collins – the book purports to expose the “dark underbelly of our favorite fish.”

A recently published counterpoint in Saving Seafood, however, rebutted a number of claims in the book – including that net-pen salmon farms have a “toxic stew” underneath them.  

“Farmers know that pristine marine conditions are essential for high-quality salmon. When salmon farms are properly sited in deep, fast-moving waters, the massive ocean space quickly assimilates organic fish waste,” Saving Seafood wrote. “Natural assimilation of organic waste is known to be a best solution from an environmental perspective. Lobsters thrive around salmon farms and catch landings remain strong in Canada and the U.S.”

In addition to the book, Time Magazine recently published a story from Frantz and Collins titled “3 Reasons to Avoid Farmed Salmon.”

That article largely pulls from the same pool of information the couple used to write the book is another example of falsehoods targeting seafood, according National Aquaculture Association President Sebastian Belle.

“There is a war being waged against science by activists that would prefer decisions be based on politics, anecdotes, and shameless misrepresentations and the authors deliver on this approach by basing their arguments on false factoids pulled from the news or discredited old studies in place of real facts,” Belle wrote in an op-ed to Time Magazine.

Belle said Frantz and Collins were wrong to write that salmon are raised “crammed” in cages and that fish are doused with antibiotics.

“Salmon are grown in sea cages that contain less than 4 percent fish and more than 96 percent water,” Belle wrote. “Salmon are raised with little or no antibiotics under the watch of veterinarians. Farmers have a stewardship responsibility to care for the animals they raise. Farm-raised salmon receive the least medicines out of all the most-popular animal proteins we buy at the grocery store.”

The book and article are the latest examples of documentary and media criticism of the seafood industry – and, in particular, the farmed-salmon industry – that seafood advocates have responded to. Recent Netflix-based movie Don’t Look Up included lines about how farmed salmon looks “fake” compared to the wild counterpart, a moment that Jennifer Bushman – a strategic development consultant for the seafood industry that has worked with brands like Kvaroy Arctic, Verlasso, Love the Wild, and Blue Ocean Mariculture – said highlights the false narratives aquaculture has to face.

“This five-second moment of dialogue, in one fell swoop, had more power and eyeballs than those of us in the blue foods community might actually have in our entire careers. It’s a moment where he implies to the audience – that even when the world is coming to an end – do not eat farmed fish,” Bushman wrote in a SeafoodSource op-ed. “This false narrative on aquaculture from an actor well-known for his support of environmental initiatives, and others like it in the media, are highly detrimental to our mission and push viewers to adopt a belief that will hurt our food system in the long term.”

Salmon Wars also isn’t the first anti-seafood media that has come out in the last few years – Seaspiracy, also released on Netflix, was heavily criticized by the seafood industry after its debut in 2021.

The continued attacks against finfish aquaculture are unwarranted, Belle said.

“Consumers have the right to choose what foods they eat. They also have the right to expect ‘investigative journalists’ to do the homework needed to present them with fact, not fiction,” Belle wrote of Salmon Wars. “Ms. Collins and Mr. Frantz feel that farm-raised salmon is a new fish and an ‘industrialized imposter.’ This would describe 100 percent of the farmed food products we eat that have, over centuries, replaced wild foods because nature could not keep up with growing demand.”   

Photo courtesy of MARCELODLT/Shutterstock