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Took my kid out one afternoon last week on the Sacramento River, where he caught his first-ever salmon.
He fought the fish all by himself and the only thing I did was hold the back of his life jacket so he didn’t get yanked over the side.
So freaking awesome!!!! :)
So, what do you get when you cross a Chinook Salmon with an Atlantic Salmon with an eelpout? In my mind…trouble, that’s what! Here’s the deal:
AquaBounty Technologies, a Massachusetts-based biotech company, has created what it calls the “AquAdvantage” salmon. Yep, salmon created in a lab, not gravel! They accomplished this feat by injecting a fragment of DNA from eelpout — along with a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon — into a fertilised Atlantic salmon egg. The result? A salmon that produces growth hormone year round, instead of only during warm weather. This allows the fish to reach market weight in half the time of a real salmon.
The FDA is expected to approve the genetically engineered salmon after a 60-day public comment period. If approved, it will be the first approved food from a transgenic animal application to enter the U.S. food supply.
While fast-growing salmon seem like a grand plan, I am pretty leery of “better living through genetically messing with Mother Nature.” Though AquaBounty says their fish are sterile, environmentally sound, and have no chance to escape in the wild and, therefore pose no threat to wild fish populations, I’m still not so sure. Apparently, these fish eat five times more than wild salmon — and if they somehow got loose into the ocean, the AquAdvantage salmon could inflict major pain on native baitfish and salmon populations.
I wonder what they are going to feed these things?? The tuna farming business is wiping out baitfish populations around the world and I fear we could see something along the same lines here. And if the super salmon are not fed real baitfish..what then? I shudder the thought!
Then there’s the whole health question. Something about salmon completely engineered by humans makes me wonder about the nutritional value. Without labeling, will we be able to tell these things from wild fish in the market?
And you have other issues such as what effect these fish would have on US and Canadian fishing fleets and the businesses that support them.
Overall, it seems like a bad science project to me. Adding to the whole bad vibe I get is the fact that the FDA did some kinda sneaky business regarding this whole issue.
You should really read up on this and let the FDA know what you think. To sign a petition against Frankenfish, CLICK HERE (scroll to the bottom)
Further Reading
Nation of Change: FDA QUIETLY PUSHES THROUGH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON OVER CHRISTMAS BREAK
Nat Geo: FDA MISSES THE BOAT WITH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON
The Independent: GE FISH FOR DINNER
Grist: THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE
Everybody’s first-ever reaction to seeing a “sploosh ball” is pretty much the same. Something like…
What the $#&% is that?? Or perhaps: You’re frigging kidding me…this is a joke, right?
It’s easy to understand, too, considering these black sinker balls that have taken the side-drifting world by storm look like they’re better suited for back-bouncing at first glance. Because they’re made of plastic, the balls are much larger than other drift weights and a ½ ouncer looks like it should weigh about 4 or 6 ounces. And the big ‘ol 1-ounce jobbies wouldn’t look too out of place being loaded into a cannon. When rigged up on typical side-drifting gear, these jumbo plastic weights look downright ridiculous. And the “splooosh” sound they make when they hit the river is just plain goofy. The whole thing seems so stinkin’ silly…
That is until fish them. Pretty quickly you’ll begin to see the light. Sploosh balls have several key attributes that make them very attractive to side-drifters. Here’s a look…Click here to read more…
Luckily, you don’t have to trash a bunch of eggs these days thanks to the wizardry of the mad scientists at Atlas-Mike’s. Their new Brite & Tight Cluster-Skein liquid egg cure is as easy as it gets! In a nutshell, you just marinate your roe in the liquid and it does all the work from there! Now more of that endless sprinkle-sprinkle-sprinkle, make sure you get the cure into all the folds, and then sprinkle so more. This cure is super easy and firms/dyes your eggs and adds scent. Brite & Tight is Oregon legal, too, because it is sulfite free.
Here’s a quick how-to pictorial on curing eggs with this stuff…Click here to read more…
Here is a little un-edited video shot by Ron Milam, who was sitting in the backseat of the ol’ Pavati a few days back as we ran some white stuff on the Klamath River. Despite Dale Milam’s screams (kids, put your earmuffs on), no anglers were hurt in the filming of this video…