www.glofish.com

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by saltcreep

After conversations with EC, what I was told was that genitically modified animals are not permitted to be imported into Canada. The issue is not escapability and the fish wreaking havoc in our waters (not that it would happen) but just the GM fish themselves.

I thought that did not apply to pets? I thought it only applied to food animals?

Steve

[saltcreep]

Steve, I was told that the legislation does not make that distinction. Apparantly EC is willing to look at all the info available and make a decision on that.

Namscam...Why would I lie when I spent six and a half hours dealing with this issue last week. This has just come to EC's attention very recently. I saw them in a store the day prior to the inspection I was involved with.

[Namscam]

Originally Posted by saltcreep

Namscam...Why would I lie when I spent six and a half hours dealing with this issue last week. This has just come to EC's attention very recently. I saw them in a store the day prior to the inspection I was involved with.

I m not saying your are lieing..i m just merely stating the fact that I did see a store sell these Genetically modified glofish......I was just wondering if this new law was passed within the past couple of days or not....

[saltcreep]

Just because you see something at a store does not necessarily mean that it has been imported legally or is legal for sale in the country. Here is my disclaimer, that statement is not meant to cast dispersions on any LFS that has had them in the past .

I have spoken with one importer this week and he had indicated that he was sent a notice from EC two months ago reegarding the status of the fish. There only has been a crackdown on the possession and from my understanding came from a complaint back East. A LFS that has them or has had them recently, either A, isn't aware of the status or B, doesn't care. My feeling is that it is the former.

I think in the past, it was failry easy to import these fish. The latin name is obviously the same for both the regular zebra danios and the GM variety. If customs looks at an invoice containing these fish, the only way to tell the difference is to physically inspect the shipment. Until recently, it wasn't being done.

[Scales]

I was channel surfing a couple of nights ago and caught a few minutes of some news report on the "glofish". My recollection is sketchy...there were interviews with some aquarium store owners as well as government officials. One governement "official" said (to the best of my recollection) that selling/owning such fish was in violation of some regulation/law. They were being seized from pet stores.

There are obviously some glofish that are not "sterile" because the reporter visited some Ontario guy who was breeding them and providing the fish to pet stores....it was bizarre to see a relatively large scale tropical fish breeding set-up in a shed in the snow covered wildrness. They showed both pregnant females as well as some fry.

[DiscusZ]

the only plce i have seen aquaruim fish in local waters (alberta) is in banff blelow the hot springs. People used to dump their aqarium fish there and they have thrived. I was even there one winter and walked down to there the hot springs emptied into this lake/marshy area and you could see danios, fancy guppies, even the odd pleco. Havent been there recently so not sure if they are still there, I would assume so..

But that area is definately a unique situation for them to survive.. water stays a constant temp.

there is a fair polulation of chiclids and pirannas in osyoos lake and other lakes in the surrounding area.... south okanogan

[incoma]

At the shaw home page http://calgary.shawtv.com/ theres a short movie pic about the glofish and Riverfront Aquarium. The story has a little more info.

[EmilyB]

That was interesting. Wonder if that cameraman thought the squareback anthias was a freak too....

[BCOrchidGuy]

Namscam (hope I spelled that right) The Glow fish at King Ed were seized as well tank is labeled with a Gov't Red Tag. They are not allowed to feed the fish, sell the fish, or move the fish. NO CONTACT is to be made, supposedly when the fish die they are not to be removed from the tank either. A number of stores got them in from a supplier.

Doug