After developing certification standards for facilities that raise shrimp, salmon, tilapia, pangasius and channel catfish, the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices program has shifted to mussels.
The Mussel Farm Technical Committee has finalized its committee-level draft standards, which were sent to the BAP standards oversight committee for review. Once the initial draft receives input from members, the draft may return to the farm committee for final adjustments and secondary approval.
Although mussel culture is generally considered to have rather limited negative environmental impacts, the draft BAP standards indicate mussel-cultivation sites must analyze local conditions to identify potentially sensitive or important habitats, and operate with minimal impacts on sediment quality and benthic organisms
Certified mussel farms will have to document regulatory compliance and responsibility toward workers and local communities. The farms must also control any mussel diseases or parasites that appear during production.
