In the dark of night, Sept. 5, 2009, an angler boated what is now claimed as the new all-tackle world-record rainbow trout. The fish weighed an unbelievable 48 pounds, beating the current 43-pound 10-ounce world record (which was caught by his identical twin brother, Adam, in 2007) by 4 pounds 6 ounces. Both fish came from Diefenbaker Lake, in Saskatchewan, Canada.
All good, huge fish in all, but the Devil is as usual in the detail. The first catch created a storm of controversy – that catch sparked online debate over the legitimacy of Lake Diefenbaker’s farm-born, but escaped genetically-engineered rainbows. The fish are genetically altered to eat and grow bigger than fish in the wild – they are sterile, so growing bigger is without diversion. Because they do not spawn they live many years longer than a wild trout, so just keep getting bigger.
For this fish, and other fish like it to be ratified by the IGFA as a World Record fish is utter nonsense and debases the whole concept of an equal opportunity for all to catch potential record breakers. ‘Building fish’ that can break records is no different to athletes taking performance enhancing drugs to win medals.
The sooner the IGFA comes out and refuses to accept claims for genetically altered fish the better. Unfortunately the IGFA’s record of taking action on matters such as these is a long saga do-nothing. I do not think I will live long enough for them to get off their butts.

Related posts:
Comments on this entry are closed.