Barramundi producer Australis Aquaculture announced its Vietnam farm received a Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) Seafood Watch program “Best Choice” green rating.
The designation represents the first ever “Best Choice” ranking for a fish grown in open marine net-pens.
For farmed fish, the Seafood Watch program evaluates a wide range of potential impacts including feed efficiency, habitat and water quality impacts, disease, use of chemicals and escape risks.
Australis Aquaculture 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 ranking. Australis’ land-based recirculating farm in Massachusetts received a Seafood Watch Best Choice ranking in 2006.
“We have been working toward this ‘Best Choice’ ranking since the very beginning," said Josh Goldman, Australis CEO. “We are thrilled that Seafood Watch has acknowledged our accomplishments through the ‘Best Choice’ ranking and look forward to having more consumers and retailers experience the mild flavor, nutrition and sustainability benefits of our barramundi.”
“To see a business like Australis take the lead in innovating new and sustainable ways to farm a species like barramundi is both exciting and encouraging,” said Barton Seaver, chef and director, Healthy and Sustainable Food Program at The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard, and a Fellow at the New England Aquarium.
