The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Salmon Farm Standard Issue 3.0 has been released for a public comment period. The 60-day public comment period ends on May 5.

Issue 3.0 has been modified from the previous Issue 2.4 to expand the overall comprehensiveness of the audit. The most significant changes were made to the sections addressing social responsibility, wildlife and predator interactions, animal health and welfare, and biosecurity and disease management.

Specifically, changes that were made include:

• Updated procedures for safe diving, response to diver emergencies, requirements for diver training and certification
• Adoption of forage fish dependency ratio (FFDR) as a metric
• Stronger requirements for protection of predator species and endangered, threatened, and protected species
• More emphasis on the use and documentation of operational welfare indicators
• Updated requirements for humane harvest/slaughter (with SOPs for slaughter, etc.)
• More requirements for biosecurity and fish welfare during transport or crowding

All public comments received during the public comment period are carefully considered for inclusion in the final draft. All properly submitted comments and GSA’s response will be public, however, the author will be anonymous.

The draft of the Salmon Farm Standard is available on the BAP website here. To comment, download the public comment form here and submit the form to GSA Standards Coordinator David Dietz at David.Dietz@globalseafood.org.