The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has completed a new set of Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) standards for finfish and crustacean farming, in an attempt to simplify a complex set of standards.
The GAA announced the new standards Tuesday, 23 April at the 2013 European Seafood Exposition. Until now, the GAA has had separate sets of standards for many different species of finfish and other seafood, a needless complexity, according to Dan Lee, the GAA’s BAP standards coordinator.
"This is really a step forward for us,” Lee said. “Now we have merged those standards into a single document.”
The new standards will encompass all finfish and shellfish with the exception of salmon and mussels, which are unique enough species to warrant their own rules, said Emil Avalon, the BAP development manager for Europe for GAA.
Despite the species being so different, Avalon said the raising process is similar enough that an overall set of standards will work well.
All these can be dealt with in a pretty standard way,” Avalon told said.
ee added the standard will be used for newer, not-yet catalogued species, too. “It opens up the whole program to a vast range of new species,” he said.
