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As the US federal government continues to evaluate whether or not to approve AquaBounty’s genetically-modified (GM) “AquAdvantage” salmon, Canada’s Cohen Commission (CC), a group established by the nation’s government to track the decline of Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River, has announced some shocking information. According to a recent report, AquAdvantage being raised at a land-based, isolated site on Prince Edward Island have been found to be contaminated with Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a serious viral disease that affects Atlantic salmon.

Catherine Stewart from the Living Oceans Society and Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform recently gave an interview in which she explained the mysterious ISA discovery in the “Frankenfish.” According to the CC report, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) back in 2009 that there had been an outbreak of ISA at the Prince Edward Island facility raising AquAdvantage salmon.

“I think we have to ask the question, ‘How did this get into this facility?’ This is a land-based, closed-tank system that’s raising these genetically-engineered fish,” said Stewart. “It could only have come through the eggs or the smolts, or through water that the facility pumps from the bay into their facility.”