Genetically modified fish will soon be sold in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration lifted the import restriction on AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon eggs on Friday, March 8th.

In late 2015 the FDA approved AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon, but shortly thereafter Congress had the FDA block the GM salmon from entering the U.S. until labeling standards were issued. Last December the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. The GM salmon will be labeled as “Bioengineered.”

AquaAdvantage GM Salmon eggs will be imported to the company’s land-based facility in Indiana where the eggs will be raised into salmon and sold as food. The AquaAdvantage Salmon grows year-round and grows faster than farm-raised Atlantic salmon. The salmon will take more than a year reach the market if everything goes according to plan. Aquabounty chief Sylvia Wulf told the AP certification for an Indiana growing facility is expected in a few weeks. The facility will then receive the genetically modified salmon eggs and it will then take approximately 18 months for the salmon to reach their target weight.

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The Cornucopia Institute reports that GMO salmon is being sold as sushi and sashimi in Canada. AquaBounty Technologies is a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that produces genetically modified fish called “AquAdvantage,” that they say is “The World’s Most Sustainable Salmon.”

AquaBounty is the first and only company selling genetically engineered salmon. Scientists inserted a growth-hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic regulatory elements from the ocean pout into Atlantic salmon.

Although AquaBounty, the makers of engineered fast-growing salmon, have refused to tell the public where their product is being sold, their CEO recently bragged to investors that it is being used in the Canadian buyer’s “high-end sashimi lines, not their frozen prepared foods.” Consumers must continue to be wary of the origin of their food: know your farmer!” – The Cornucopia Institute

Ron Stotish, AquaBounty’s CEO, told investors last Thursday that they have sold 4.5 tonnes of it in Canada so far this year, and that,

The people who bought our fish were very happy with it. They put it in their high-end sashimi lines, not their frozen prepared foods.”

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In Canada, GM fish does not have to be labeled as such. Consequently, customers may not know if the salmon they ordered is genetically modified.

AquaAdvantage Salmon is engineered to grow at twice the rate of regular salmon while consuming up to 2 percent less feed than regular farmed salmon.

This is an untenable situation. The fact that, once again, the company has let slip a piece of information to investors — but is information Canadian consumers need and don’t have — exposes how much it is that Canadians need labelling.” – Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

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The FDA has approved AquAdvantage salmon for human consumption, but wild salmon is big business for Alaska, so Senator Lisa Murkowski and other Alaskan officials in Congress got the FDA to block AquAdvantage imports until new GMO labeling regulations are in effect for food labels.  Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced the amendment prohibiting the import of the GM eggs needed to produce AquaBounty’s salmon, and she co-sponsored legislation mandating the labeling of genetically engineered salmon.