![]() ![]() ![]() "Without safeguards the release of these fish - whether intentional or inadvertent - has the potential to impact the environment." Philipp of the Illinois Natural History Survey, a state research center. "We have created new organisms," said David P. The proliferation of experiments has alarmed environmentalists and many scientists, who say these new transgenic strains could profoundly disrupt fragile aquatic ecosystems. They have put genes from people, cattle, chickens, mice and other fish into a number of species from Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout to walleye and northern pike. In the five years since Chinese scientists first transferred a human growth hormone gene into goldfish, researchers have successfully transferred a foreign gene into fish at least 27 times. Though it will be some time before such fish appear on the nation's dinner tables, scientists say genetic engineering will transform commercial aquaculture, or fish farming. Soon, they say, they will be able to create fish that withstand heat, cold, disease and toxins that pollute waterways, as well as sport and aquarium fish that are bigger, prettier and more feisty. Scientists have modified the genetic structure of goldfish, carp and channel catfish to make them grow bigger faster. "On the other side I see people saying, 'We're going to feed the world.' " Hallerman, a geneticist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. "On one side of me I see people saying, 'Oh, my God! We're going to have Frankenstein fish,' " said Dr. ![]() ![]() WITH quickening speed, scientists are genetically engineering new strains of fish, producing faster-growing, larger strains but raising concerns about whether Government regulation will move fast enough to head off potential environmental problems. ![]()
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