Open letter daylights evidence of environmental damage associated with BAP salmon farms
For immediate release: More than 70 environmental, animal welfare, and community groups from 18 countries have called out the industry trade association, Global Seafood Alliance, for its continued greenwashing of industrial salmon farming with its latest version of the Best Aquaculture Practices certification.
In an open letter, submitted on the final day of the public consultation for BAP Salmon Farm Standard issue 3.0, groups listed damning evidence of numerous BAP certified farms and facilities associated with environmental damage, illegal activity, and/or negative impacts to endangered species. Examples were found in all major salmon farming regions: the U.S., Norway, Chile, Canada, Scotland, and Australia.
Groups criticized the new standard for failing to have limits on critical environmental impacts such as sea lice, disease, chemicals, and water quality. Instead, the standard relies on farms meeting their minimal legal obligations and following business as usual practices.
The open letter follows recent exposés by the Outlaw Ocean Project and Corporate Accountability Lab that uncovered serious allegations of forced labor, child labor, and worker exploitation, as well as environmental damage, associated with BAP-certified facilities in the Indian shrimp supply chain.
“There is mounting evidence that environmental harms and human rights abuses are occurring despite the ‘responsible seafood’ claims of BAP and other certifications. The new BAP Standard is no exception. Farms in Chile’s marine protected areas will be eligible for certification; so will farms in Canada, Scotland and Norway with sea lice loads that are lethal to juvenile wild salmon; as well as Australian farms that are driving the endangered Maugean skate towards extinction,” said Kelly Roebuck, SeaChoice representative from Living Oceans Society.
A significant number of major supermarkets – such as global giants Amazon, Walmart and ALDI; Loblaws and Target in North America; Tesco and Sainburys in the UK; and Woolworths and Coles in Australia – defer to the BAP certification as part of the responsible seafood sourcing policies.
“Major supermarkets must quit relying on these flawed certifications, stop the greenwashing, and do their own environmental and human rights due diligence on their seafood supply chains,” said Dana Cleaveley, SeaChoice Market Analyst.
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Note: The absence of other eco-certifications from this news release should not be taken as an endorsement for those schemes.
Media contacts:
Karen Wristen, Executive Director of Living Oceans Society and SeaChoice Steering Committee member: mobile +1 604 788 5634 | email kwristen@livingoceans.org
Kelly Roebuck, SeaChoice representative from Living Oceans Society: mobile +61 432 660 064 | email kroebuck@livingoceans.org
About SeaChoice: SeaChoice is a collaboration between David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre, and Living Oceans Society. For over 15 years, SeaChoice has watchdogged seafood certifications including the ASC, BAP, GLOBALG.A.P. and MSC. SeaChoice and/or member representatives were involved in the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue Steering Committee, several ASC advisory groups, and the ISEAL Code of Good Practice revision.
Backgrounder:
Open letter submission to BAP Salmon Farm Standard 3.0 consultation
About BAP: The Global Seafood Alliance, a trade association, is the scheme owner of the Best Aquaculture Practices certification. It is the first time in 13 years that the BAP Salmon Farm Standard has been open for public comment. As of November 2023, over a third (35%) of the global farmed salmon industry was BAP certified. This includes 100% of Canadian and Chilean; 85% of Australian; and 33% of UK farmed production. In 2022, the Global Seafood Alliance made USD 19 million with majority from certification label fees.
Full list of signatories:
- ADAC Chiloe (Asociación Defensa Ambiente y Cultura), Chile
- Animal Justice Party Tasmania, Australia
- Animal Welfare Institute, USA
- Animals Australia, Australia
- Atlantic Salmon Federation, Canada
- Bob Brown Foundation, Australia
- Captain Paul Watson Foundation, Australia
- Centinela Patagonia, Chile
- Clayoquot Action, Canada
- Conservation Council of New Brunswick, Canada
- Corporate Accountability Lab, USA
- David Suzuki Foundation, Canada
- Deutsche Stiftung Meeresschutz, Germany
- Don’t Cage Our Oceans, USA
- Doug Frantz and Catherine Collins, Salmon Wars, Canada
- Dr Julien Armijo, France
- Ecology Action Centre, Canada
- Ekō, Global
- Endangered Species Protection Agency, UK
- Environment Tasmania, Australia
- Ethical Farming Ireland, Ireland
- Feedback, UK
- Friends of North Bruny Inc, Australia
- Friends of the Bay, Australia
- Gallifrey Foundation, Switzerland
- Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages, Ireland
- Georgia Strait Alliance, Canada
- Global Salmon Farming Resistance, Argentina
- Greenpeace, Canada
- Greenpeace, Switzerland
- Guardians of the Sounds, New Zealand
- Healthy Bays Network, Canada
- Humane Society International, Australia
- Ingen Burfisk i Havet, Denmark
- Inside Scottish Salmon Feedlots, Scotland
- International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, USA
- Katheti AMKE, Greece
- Keep Our Coast Clean, Australia
- Killora Community Association, Australia
- Living Oceans Society, Canada
- LOWCO Au, Australia
- Marine Protection Tasmania, Australia
- Native Fish Society, USA
- Nature Canada, Canada
- Neighbours of Fish Farming, Australia
- North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Iceland
- NWTas for Clean Oceans Inc., Australia
- Oceanic Preservation Society, USA
- Planet Oceans, USA
- Por el Mar, Argentina
- Pro Wildlife, Germany
- Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation, USA
- Rauch Foundation, USA
- Rob Stewart Foundation, Canada
- Roberto Jaquier, Sweden
- Salmon Camera International, Norway
- Salmon Camera, Norway
- Salmon Watch Ireland, Ireland
- Salmonid Association Eastern Newfoundland, Canada
- Sea Shepherd, Australia
- Sea Shepherd, Portugal
- SeaChoice, Canada
- Sharks Education Institute, Portugal
- Surfrider Tasmania, Australia
- Tánana Pictures, Chile
- Tasman Peninsula for Marine Protection, Australia
- Tasmanian Alliance for Marine Protection, Australia
- The Icelandic Wildlife Fund, Iceland
- The Mowinckel Family Office, Norway / Portugal
- The SeaChange Agency, USA
- VÁ! félag um vernd fjarðar, Iceland
- Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Canada
- Wild Fish Conservancy, USA
- Wilderness Society Tasmania, Australia
- WildFish, Scotland
- World Animal Protection, Australia
- World Salmon Forum, USA
Quotes from signatories:
Karen Wristen, Executive Director, Living Oceans Society (British Columbia, Canada):
“It is utterly irresponsible that all British Columba salmon farms are BAP certified and sold to unsuspecting shoppers as ‘environmentally responsible’. Claiming ‘best practice’ doesn’t cut it when the practices allowed by certifications are simply farms obeying the law, and industry norms that continue to threaten wild salmon populations.”
Frederik W. Mowinckel , Co-Founder, SalmonCamera International (Norway)
In view of the dramatic press reports over the past 6-9 months about animal cruelty, export of sub-standard quality farmed salmon, untreated pollution and much more, it is a mystery to me how any of the salmon farmers in Norway can be approved by any serious institution. Unfortunately, the Norwegian Government has pretty much lost control of the industry and the result is a ‘catch me if you can’ attitude among most of the salmon farmers. It is time the certification companies take a much closer look at what they recommend us consumers to safely eat. The current control regime is completely unacceptable and full of loopholes.
Bonny Glambeck, Campaigns Director, Clayoquot Action (British Columbia, Canada):
“Given the number of sea mammal deaths, pesticide dumping, sea lice, and deadly pathogens, it is shocking that salmon farms in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve could receive any type of eco-certification.”
Matthew Abbott, Marine Program Director and Fundy Baykeeper, Conservation Council of New Brunswick (Atlantic Canada):
“BAP markets its certification as promoting safe and responsible seafood practices, but BAP-certified companies in New Brunswick have been caught using pesticides illegally, even killing commercially caught lobsters. These reckless practices threaten sensitive marine ecosystems and economically and socially important fisheries. If companies with records of proven negligence can get certified by BAP, what is the point of this program?”
Andrew Clarke, Conservation Campaign Director, Atlantic Salmon Federation (Atlantic Canada):
“The BAP standard has not done anything to protect wild Atlantic salmon and other wildlife from salmon farms in Atlantic Canada. Entire populations of wild Atlantic salmon are being lost and the cause is aquaculture. The licensing and regulatory requirements established by provincial governments in Atlantic Canada are proven to be inadequate, and that is as high as the BAP salmon farm standard reaches.”
Allie Brudney, Senior Staff Attorney, Corporate Accountability Lab (USA):
“Across industries and countries, certification schemes have been shown to fail – to fail workers, local communities, and the environment. In CAL’s recent report, Hidden Harvest: Human Rights and Environmental Abuses in India’s Shrimp Industry, we documented evidence of labor exploitation, including forced labor, and environmental harm at and resulting from BAP-certified facilities. Certification schemes like BAP have become a shield for companies to hide behind. Buyers must stop treating flawed certification schemes as if participation in such schemes constitutes due diligence, and should instead work with independent worker organizations to improve conditions.”
Rachel Mulrenan, Scotland Director, WildFish (UK):
“Years of involvement by certification bodies such as BAP, RSPCA Assured and ASC has not translated into any meaningful improvements in the environmental and welfare performance of open-net salmon farms across the globe. If they are to be credible, certification schemes need to have stringent requirements, which are robustly enforced. Unfortunately, research conducted by WildFish, Living Oceans, SeaChoice and others shows that this is currently not the case. If these schemes aren’t going to properly hold the industry to account, then their existence risks being little more than a greenwashing operation, which misleads consumers and obscures the true cost of this inherently unsustainable industry.”
Amelia Cookson, Industrial Aquaculture Campaigner, Feedback (UK):
“Time and time again certification schemes prove themselves to be vehicles for greenwashing. Our research shows that the production of fish oil for the Norwegian aquaculture industry is fueling food insecurity and loss of livelihoods throughout West Africa. In spite of this, BAP continues to certify companies, such as Norway’s Skretting, that source fish oil from the region. Since when did driving food insecurity become a marker of sustainability?”
James Watts, Save the Skate Campaigner, Environment Tasmania (Australia):
“We call on Australia’s supermarkets to stop using BAP and GLOBALGAP certifications to justify selling Macquarie Harbour salmon. The evidence is clear that Macquarie Harbour salmon farms are the primary threat to the survival of the endangered Maugean skate according to independent scientific advice provided to the Australian Government. BAP has lost all credibility by choosing to ignore the evidence and endorse extinction.”
Jess Coughlan, Campaigner, Neighbours of Fish Farming (Australia):
“There’s nothing sustainable about extinction. BAP certification is running protection for a salmon industry driving a 60-million-year-old animal, Maugean skate, towards extinction in its only natural habitat, Tasmania. Such deceptive certification defrauds consumers attempting to make ethical choices when purchasing seafood.”
