Latest Bio-Tech: Pets That Glow

American aquariums could soon be aglow with bright red fluorescent fish, the nation's first genetically altered household pet. Soon other fish could follow, glowing under black light like the colors of a rainbow.

The trademarked GloFish are being sent to selected pet stores in advance of their official Jan. 5 debut — everywhere except in California, where regulators have banned most uses of such transgenic species for fear they could spread into the wild and harm native populations.

To create the fish, researchers at National University of Singapore spliced a sea anemone gene into what nature intended as a black-and-silver zebra fish, a species common in aquariums around the world. They made a freshwater fish with the bright red color of a tropical saltwater reef dweller. In a dark room under ultraviolet or black light, the fish appear to glow.

Originally developed to provide visual markers in the presence of pollution, the scientists wound up with "a breakthrough in the ornamental fish industry," said Alan Blake, president of Yorktown Technologies. "This is something that never has been seen before."

Blake's Austin, Texas-based company has the license to market the biotech fish, with a "significant" but undisclosed portion of the proceeds going to the Singapore researchers.

The altered zebra fish are being grown by two Florida companies, and Florida's agriculture department is among supporters urging the California Fish and Game Commission to grant the first commercial exemption to the state's ban on what critics call "Frankenfish."

Commissioners recently rejected an exemption on ethical grounds, despite accepting recommendations from scientists and the state Department of Fish and Game that there is no danger to state waterways even if the fish escaped. That decision blocks the fish from one of the world's largest markets, accounting for an eighth of the nation's ornamental fish sales.

Supporters hoped approval under California's strict standards would help convince other states and consumers that the fish are safe even if they're flushed down the toilet, dumped into the local swimming hole — or consumed by a wayward house cat or 2-year-old.

California has become the battleground largely because federal agencies decided they have no jurisdiction over a bio-engineered household pet not intended for consumption.

The Center for Food Safety in the nation's capital plans to sue, asking a judge to order the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the GloFish, said attorney Peter Jenkins, a policy analyst with the environmental advocacy group.

A decision not to regulate the zebra fish will open a "floodgate" for other transgenic species to hit the market with no oversight, the center said in a letter to the FDA co-signed by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, National Environmental Trust, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Consumers Union.

"In California, at least there's a system in place," Jenkins said. The center opposes approval in California, as does the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and state Sen. Byron Sher, who has fought for restrictions on transgenic fish.

To date, the state has limited licenses to 13 research facilities that have taken precautions to ensure the genetically engineered fish don't escape.

While the implanted gene is passed on to the zebra fish's offspring, consuming the fish won't produce a glow. The freshwater tropical fish can't survive in salt water or cold water, and the bright red color makes the fish a tasty target if it is released, say its developers and professors at Purdue University, the University of Minnesota and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Though millions of natural zebra fish have sold in the United States, Blake said no wild population has ever survived.

However, the U.S. Geological Survey cites four locations where the natural form of the zebra fish have been found since 1968: two in Florida, one in a flood control channel near Westminster, California, and one population in a New Mexico hot spring that has since been exterminated.

"There's plenty of tropical waters in this country," Jenkins said. "The species can get out and it can get established if the conditions are right," as they are in Hawaii, Florida, some U.S. territories and freshwater hot springs whose rare denizens are particularly vulnerable to foreign species. He said more research is needed, independent of that which was solicited by Blake himself.

The existing research persuaded the California Department of Fish and Game, which is recommending the commission approve Yorktown Technologies' application.

"We're trying to be cautious," said Ed Pert, the department's fisheries programs chief. "The problem is when you start manipulating the gene of an animal, you don't know what else you're affecting."

While the fluorescent fish have sold for more than $17 in Taiwan, Blake hopes to sell them in the United States for about $5. That's still four or five times as much as a natural zebra fish, but not out of line for other ornamentals.
By Don Thompson