The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) is taking further steps towards increasing the availability of information on farming practices and key areas of public interest, including feed production, by publishing a Sustainability Progress Report, released at GOAL 2015 in Vancouver.
The report, a first for salmon farmers in BC, includes information on environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Key highlights include:
- Significant improvements have been made by feed development companies to replace marine oil and protein sources with plant and animal sources. Today the majority of salmon feed contains less than 18% marine-based products.
- Antibiotic use in the B.C. salmon farming industry, while low, has decreased seven-fold over the past decade, currently sitting at approximately 50 grams of antibiotic prescribed per tonne of production.
- Salmon farmers are committed to third-party certification: every farm in B.C. meets the requirements of at least one third-party system.
- Salmon farming contributes over $1.1-billion towards the B.C. economy and results in about 5,000 jobs.
“There have been great gains made in many facets of this business, which began in BC just over 30 years ago, and there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Jeremy Dunn, Executive Director of the BCSFA.
“Our members have shown the commitment and dedication to ensuring the long-term stability of the sector, the ocean environment and marine wild species. This report helps to both share those gains and continue the dialogue on further improvements.”
The BCSFA intends to release annual updates to its Sustainability Progress Report.
