Bay Area fishing groups joined environmental and consumer advocates Thursday in a lawsuit that aims to stop a genetically engineered fish infused with genes from other species from finding its way onto dinner plates.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, challenges the November approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of a plan by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. of Massachusetts to bio-engineer a sterile salmon that would grow extremely fast, be used solely as food and, if all goes as planned, never set a fin in a natural body of water.

The doctored salmon, engineered from both Atlantic and Pacific salmon and a slithery creature known as an eelpout, would be the first genetically engineered animal produced for human consumption.

Government regulators and the manufacturer insist the product is safe. But the notion of genetically altered seafood has created a furor among environmentalists, who have dubbed the species “Frankenfish” and say it could spread mutant genes and circulate diseases in wild salmon if an accident or sabotage ever set it loose.

“Our main concern is that the FDA approval was done without any consideration for what these Frankenfish might do if they escape into the wild in places where wild salmon live,” said John McManus, the executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, which joined the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Center for Food Safety and eight other environmental organizations in the suit.

“What has ended up happening in every place where there are farmed salmon is the nets rip and the fish escape,” McManus said.

The modified fish, known officially as “AquAdvantage Salmon,” is an Atlantic salmon that has been infused with a growth hormone gene from Pacific salmon, also known as chinook, and DNA from an eelpout. The DNA comes from what is called an antifreeze gene that allows the eelpout to live in ice-cold water.

Most to be sterile

AquaBounty, which first developed the salmon in 1989 and submitted its FDA application in 1995, intends to produce only female salmon, 95 percent of which would be sterile. The hybrid salmon would grow twice as fast as other salmon, allowing more lox, salmon steaks and other seafood to be produced.

The plan is to raise the eggs on Prince Edward Island and then, after they hatch, grow them in landlocked tanks in Panama, where they would be processed and shipped to restaurants and grocery stores throughout the United States and possibly around the world.

“AquaBounty is confident that the approval will stand, and that the FDA has been extraordinarily thorough and transparent in the review and approval of our application,” said Ron Stotish, the company’s chief executive officer.

FDA officials said they could not comment on pending litigation, but the agency’s environmental assessment declared the fish “safe as food” and downplayed concerns about mutant fish spreading into the environment.

Escape-proof facilities?

The “salmon would be produced and grown-out only in secure facilities with multiple and redundant forms of effective physical containment that have been verified and validated by FDA,” the report said, adding that the likelihood is “very low” that “salmon could escape from containment, survive and become established in the local environments.”

AquaBounty said it chose Prince Edward Island because it is surrounded by saltwater, and the eggs can only survive in freshwater. Panama was chosen to grow the fish because the water there is too warm for the fish to survive were they to escape.

Stotish told The Chronicle in 2010 that the new fish product will reduce pressure on wild fish stocks and allow experts to focus more on recovery and conservation.

“At a time when our seas are fished to the verge of extinction,” he said, “we have an ethical obligation to use every tool in our toolbox to explore alternatives to meet demand for seafood.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, an opponent of genetic engineering, said there are cracks in AquaBounty’s assurances.

“History teaches us that there is no such thing as a fail-safe,” Huffman said. “These fish can interbreed with our wild Pacific salmon and we shouldn’t start down that slippery slope.”

GMO corn crops

Genetically engineered food has become a lightning rod for criticism across the country and in Mexico, where environmental groups say bio-engineered corn has infected native crops, costing U.S. farmers billions of dollars.

Fourteen California lawmakers urged the FDA to deny the application for engineered salmon until all the ecological concerns could be addressed. Under pressure, the FDA banned the import and sale of the fish until the agency “publishes final labeling guidelines for informing consumers of such content.”

Huffman says the process was flawed because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service never got a chance to weigh in.

“The FDA was the wrong agency to be reviewing this,” he said, “because they know nothing about fisheries and the environmental impacts and risks.”

Besides the question of whether it is humane to engineer an animal for consumption, critics say it will take an incredible amount of seafood to feed the salmon.

Brettny Hardy, the senior associate attorney for Earthjustice in San Francisco, said the 5 percent of the fish that are not sterile could out-compete the critically endangered Atlantic salmon in Maine, the closest wild population, if they got out of their pens on Prince Edward Island.

“This sets a precedent for other applications to come,” Hardy said. “AquaBounty has talked about engineering trout and other kinds of fish as well. ... They are looking to produce these animals in the U.S. and other countries, so the risk of animals getting out of those facilities could be even greater.”

Even without the lawsuit, it could be a while before the engineered fish get into local frying pans. It will take up to 18 months to raise the mixed-breed critters and bring them to market, according to the company.

Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite