More farms achieve certification
Along with Tassal, members of the Global Salmon Initiative “are working to adopt the ASC framework as its primary reference point for its work and progress” according to its web site. And as the company’s web site claims, Tassal is the first salmon company in the World to obtain full ASC certification;
ASC certification is the highest standard for responsibly farmed seafood in the world and provides consumers with an assurance they are purchasing seafood from farms that manage their impacts on the environment and communities to this high standard. The ASC Salmon Standard provides guidelines for responsible aquaculture companies to manage their business in a way that will minimize negative impacts on the environment and society.
Guidelines for the conservation of natural habitat, local biodiversity and ecosystem function, the protection of the health and genetic integrity of wild populations, responsible use of resources, disease management, social responsibility, and community and stakeholder engagement are included to ensure compliance by aquaculture companies worldwide.
In August 2013, Tassal undertook a pre-assessment audit against the ASC Salmon Standard at our Middle Harbour and Gordon leases in Macquarie Harbour. Based on the outcome of this audit we were able to make decisions about how to proceed with full certification across the entire Tassal operations. We have now successfully certified all six of our marine farming regions, beginning with Macquarie Harbour in FY2014 followed by the five regions in the South East in FY2015. The following video talks through our journey to ASC and the process and importance of what was undertaken to achieve ASC certification.
Tassal publically reports information on our website that has previously been reported via our annual sustainability reports. This data can be viewed on our ASC Dashboard. This includes data pertaining to escaped salmon, unexplained loss of salmon, lethal incidents involving marine mammals and birds and amounts of antibiotics used.
