The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has expanded the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program with the completion of the new BAP mollusk farm standards.
The standards encompass all major farmed mollusk species, including mussels, scallops, oysters, clams and abalone, and replace the existing BAP mussel farm standards.
A series of comments were received during the 60-day public comment period, which ended on 12 February. Comments were received from respondents that included farmers, producer associations and non-governmental organisations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, and can be viewed on the GAA website.
“This represents a major milestone for the BAP program, which now encompasses virtually all aquaculture production systems for finfish, crustaceans and mollusks. Congratulations are in order for Brian Kingzett and his technical committee for their painstaking efforts in creating a workable standard that can be applied globally to the full diversity of farmed mollusks”, said BAP standards coordinator Dan Lee.
The standards were prepared by the BAP mollusk technical committee, which was chaired by Mr Kingzett.
Currently, there are six sets of BAP standards - mollusk farm standards, finfish and crustacean farm standards, salmon farm standards, seafood processing plant standards, hatchery and nursery standards and feed mill standards.
The mollusk standards can be viewed here.
