Marine Harvest passes BAP group test

MARINE Harvest Canada successfully completed a pilot of the Best Aquaculture Practices’ (BAP) new group farm programme last month, resulting in 11 of its salmon farm sites attaining BAP certification.

Located along the British Columbia coastline, the farm sites are the first set to earn BAP certification under the group farm programme, the Global Aquaculture Alliance announced.

The BAP group farm approach allows for a reduced number of site audits; a subset of the total number of sites is audited and the sites receive one BAP certificate.

The ability to qualify for group certification and to have a subset of farms audited requires an applicant to implement strict and consistent internal controls across all of its operations.

This includes a procedure to remove non-compliant sites.

‘It’s a huge honour to be selected to undertake this pilot,’ said Marine Harvest Canada certification manager Katherine Dolmage.