Australis Aquaculture’s offshore barramundi farm in Vietnam has received a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch® program ‘Best Choice’ ‘green’ rating for sustainability.
The Best Choice rating is the result of an extensive, multi-year evaluation of the company's operations and represents the first ever Best Choice ranking for a fish grown in open marine net-pens.
Seafood Watch recommendations are regarded as one of the most respected seafood assessment systems, and provide consumers, chefs and wholesale buyers with unbiased science-based guidance about the environmental sustainability of a wide range of farmed and wild-caught seafood products.
"We have been working toward this 'Best Choice' ranking since the very beginning," said Josh Goldman, Australis CEO. "We received a 'Best Choice' rating for our land-based barramundi farm in 2006 and have always believed that the same level of sustainability was achievable on our marine farms. We are thrilled that Seafood Watch has acknowledged our accomplishments through the 'Best Choice' ranking.”
Australis Aquaculture, the world's largest producer of barramundi, was founded in 2004 and has been operating in Central Vietnam since 2007. The company's farming operations draw on a hybrid approach that combines on-shore closed containment tanks with offshore grow-out cages in the open ocean. Low-density stocking, lack of chemical usage and closely monitored feeding all contributed to the Best Choice ranking.
