Nov 17, 2022

AquaBounty’s Statement Regarding the FDA Amended Environmental Assessment

“AquaBounty raises fresh Atlantic salmon in a safe, secure, and sustainable way. The likelihood of our salmon escaping our land-based farms, surviving, and establishing a population in the wild is “extremely low”. Those are FDA’s words in its first review issued in 2015, and in the amended Environmental Assessment released on November 16, the FDA once again concluded there is a “negligible likelihood” that our product would “cause significant harms” or even “effects on the environment of the US."

Our highly controlled land-based farms and robust mitigation measures – already approved by federal regulators and in use without issue in our facilities for over 20 years – help prevent any impacts, however unlikely, to the environment, endangered species, or wild fish populations. Additionally, our AquaBounty production salmon are female, sterile, and unable to reproduce, providing an additional and redundant biological barrier to protect wild salmon. 

We are continuing to review FDA’s amended Environmental Assessment and are confident this process will affirm the extremely low likelihood that our salmon could successfully establish a population in the wild. We look forward to having this matter quickly settled and, in the meantime, we will continue to focus on sharing our sustainable, nutritious salmon with our customers.”

Sylvia A. Wulf
President & CEO
AquaBounty