The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has released the newest salmon farm standards for its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) program.
The certification body recently released Salmon Farm Standard (SFS) Issue 3.0, upgrading from its 2.4 standard. According to GSA, the new standard will apply to all salmon farms effective 5 August 2026.
“Updates have been made to make the standard more robust, including strengthened human rights requirements, stronger requirements for protection of predator species, and stricter requirements for humane slaughter methods,” GSA said. “This standard will also transition all salmon farms to a mandatory two-day audit duration.”
More specifically, GSA said the 3.0 standard includes stricter procedures for safe diving at aquaculture sites compared to 2.4. The 3.0 standard also includes requirements for written procedures and staff training for dealing with potential diving emergencies such as decompression sickness and procedural logs and maintenance records for equipment that are audited monthly. Diving operations also must be conducted by certified divers, and the salmon-farming firm must provide written procedures and staff training to boat operators to avoid accidents.
Another new change in the standard is the adoption of the forage fish dependency ratio (FFDR) as a metric. Historically, metrics like feed-conversion ration (FCR) and the fish-in, fish-out ratio (FIFO) have been key metrics of performance on salmon farms, but the industry has undergone a shift in recent years to the FFDR. FFDR quantifies the environmental impact of an aquaculture feed, which accounts for the proportion of forage fish included in aquaculture feed. Farmers certifying to the 3.0 standard will now need to calculate and not exceed set FFDRs based on a formula developed by GSA.
The new 3.0 standard also requires stronger protections of predator species and endangered, threatened, and protected species. Those protections include stipulations about feed ingredients sourced from wild fisheries, where salmon farmers will need to meet a minimum threshold of ingredients sourced from fisheries certified by a Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI)-recognized standard.
Farms must also manage wildlife interactions at farm sites, with the requirement stipulating any animal listed as either “critically endangered” or “endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List or any species listed under local laws as protected should not be subject to any control except through exclusion “unless human safety is at risk or an independent environmental audit provides justification for such control,” the standard states.
“Although there are cultural and legal differences among countries regarding the protection of wildlife, particularly with respect to pinnipeds, farms must do all they reasonably can to not harm wildlife, irrespective of local customs,” the standard states.
Other new requirements and changes to the standard include additional social responsibility clauses and human rights requirements, more emphasis on the use and documentation of operational welfare indicators, stricter requirements on humane slaughter and treatment of the salmon, and more biosecurity and fish welfare standards covering fish during transport.
