The Washington Post reports that a private research group called the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology is questioning the adequacy of the Food and Drug Administration regulations in assessing the risks of fish, genetically engineered in laboratories to grow faster and larger, escaping pens and taking over the habitat of nongenetically engineered varieties. Transgenic fish, they say, should be kept off the U.S. market until the FDA addresses their potential threat to wild species. Nobody knows what would happen if transgenic fish were released into the ocean and other bodies of water, but they might mate with wild relatives, eventually eliminating diversity. They might also take over their food and breeding areas, causing the weaker species to die out.

Aqua Bounty Farms Inc., a Waltham, Mass., biotech firm, has submitted an application to the FDA to begin marketing genetically modified Atlantic salmon. The company plans to submit an environmental risk assessment this spring.