Friend of the Sea standards set for rewrite
THE international certification programme, Friend of the Sea, is consulting on revised standards for sustainable aquaculture.
Friend of the Sea is a project of the World Sustainability Organisation. Its standards were established to ensure that consumers are able to choose products from sustainable sources that value fish welfare and the marine environment. Certified producers are able to use the “Friend of the Sea” branding to identify their products as sustainable.
The revision process applies to new “FOS – Aqua Inland-MarineStandard v.4”, “FOS – Audit Guidance for Aqua Inland-Marine Standard” and to all the 24 species-specific brand new Fish Welfare Standards and their related Audit Guidance.
The species-specific standards target fish that are farmed at scale, including rainbow trout, brown trout and Atlantic salmon.
Stakeholders have been invited to contribute insights and knowledge for review and discussion by Friend of the Sea.
“To achieve sustainability in aquaculture, we need to hear from everyone who has something useful to add,” said Paolo Bray, director of Friend of the Sea. “Our revision process begins with an open-ended submission period, where we welcome ideas and documents from all relevant stakeholders.”
AUSTRALIAN fish farmer Huon Aquaculture has suffered two mass escapes of salmon in less than two weeks.The Tasmania-based business was hit first by a fire at a pen in November which led to the escape of around 50,000 salmon, and then by a torn net on 2 December.
In a statement on the second incident, CEO and co-founder Peter Bender said: “A significant loss of fish has occurred (with an average weight of around 550 grams).We estimate between 120,000 and 130,000. Due to their small size these fish are unlikely to survive in the marine environment. This incident, coupled with the fire at a pen in the Lower Channel last week, is hugely concerning.”
The net tear has not been attributed to weather conditions and investigations are continuing into this and the earlier fire, the company said.
Bender also said:“We have electrical equipment on our pens, but in 35 years of farming we have never had an electrical fire on a fish pen so the cause has baffled us.”
He also pointed out that as Tasmania has no native salmonids, there would be no harmful impact on wild fish stocks or marine fauna, an issue that can create problems when salmon escape in the northern hemisphere.
Founded in 1986, Huon Aquaculture has grown to become the second largest salmon farmer in Tasmania employing over 500 people and producing around 25,000 tonnes a year.
THE latest edition of the Seafood Processing Standard (SPS) is part of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification programme. All operators seeking cerification under the programme must comply with the new standard as from 16 January 2021.
SPS Issue 5.1 includes new or revised statements regarding the outsourcing of processing, environmental monitoring and food-product testing and on food safety as it pertains to canning, thermal processing and other specialty processing methods. The revised standard also strengthens employee rights and protection.
Chris Weeks, BAP program integrity manager said: “We look forward to the implementation of SPS 5.1, which provides additional information in the areas of outsourcing, food safety, environmental monitoring and employee health and safety.”
SPS applies to processors of both wildcaught and farmed seafood, replacing the BAP Seafood Processing Plant Standard when it changed from BAP to Global Seafood Assurances (GSA) in February 2019. A sister organisation to the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), GSA also manages the Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard (RFVS).
Best Aquaculture Practices is an international
SPS applies to processors of both wild-caught and seafood” farmed certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture production chain. More information on the SPS Isssue 5.1 can be found in the BAP’s FAQ.