Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Issue 3.0 of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Farm Standard was released to the public. The renamed BAP Farm Standard replaces Issue 2.4 of the BAP Finfish and Crustacean Farm Standard and adds several new requirements under BAP’s four pillars of sustainability — food safety, social accountability, environmental responsibility and animal welfare.
The new standard covers all feed-fed finfish and crustacean species. However, separate sets of standards continue to exist for salmonids raised in marine net pens (covered by the BAP Salmon Farm Standard) and unfed mollusk species such as mussels, clams and oysters (covered by the BAP Mollusk Standard).
Issue 3.0 of the BAP Farm Standard will be mandatory for new and re-certifying facilities as of March 1, 2022. They were released after a 60-day public comment period that expired on September 26, 2020. Comments were received from a total of 43 individuals and organizations.
The new requirements in Issue 3.0 of the BAP Farm Standard include:
- A ban on antimicrobials designated as critically important for human medicine by the World Health Organization.
- Additional social accountability clauses related to equality and worker safety.
- Additional wildlife protection clauses about acoustic deterrent devices and entanglement.
- Clarity on metrics such as feed conversion ratio, fish in/fish out ratio and effluent nutrient loads.
- Specific consideration for environmental requirements for reservoir/lake-based cage farms, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and coastal flow-through farms.
- The scope of Issue 3.0 includes “fed” mollusks such as abalone as well as sea cucumbers and other aquatic invertebrates grown in land-based facilities.
Download Issue 3.0 of the BAP Farm Standard here.
Stakeholders interested in learning more about Issue 3.0 of the BAP Farm Standard can attend a webinar on March 11 for an overview of the updates to the standard. Register here.
