Bordering on the insane
A recent upgrade in the rating of salmon farmed by Cooke Aquaculture in Maine by the American-owned Seafood Watch is a great step forward for the industry, but raises the question, why is it only salmon grown in US-waters that are deemed to achieve the 'good alternative' rating, when those grown by the same company a stone's throw across the border are still in the 'avoid' category?
This past week, the Monteray Bay Seafood Watch certification program raised the assessment rating of Cooke Aquaculture's True North Salmon from red, the ‘avoid’ list, to yellow, the ‘good alternative’ list. Yet, somewhat strangely, only fish produced in Cooke's Maine sites have achieved the upgrade, while all other Atlantic salmon grown in net-pens are still on the ‘avoid’ list.
As the largest salmon producer in Atlantic North America, Cooke Aquaculture operates about 100 marine farm sites off the coasts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Maine, with at least one third of those farms or more empty at any given time.
In the Bay of Fundy, sites operated by Cooke can literally be a stone's-throw away from each other – so what is so special about the invisible line dividing Canada from the US that transforms salmon to ‘avoid’ (grown in Canada) into salmon that are a ‘good alternative’ (grown in the US)?
It is particularly puzzling given that all of Cooke's North American operations are 4-star certified under the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP).
The company grows the fish in the same way and with the same set of guidelinesside of the border, but Seafood Watch refuses to apply the ‘good alternative’ rating to Canadian-grown salmon.
Despite the obvious and confusing double standard, this approval is a fantastic and very important development for the industry.
Nell Halse, Communications Director for Cooke Aquaculture, said the recent approval rating is “a huge milestone for [Cooke]”.
Halse explained how the process has been a long and arduous one, starting over 8 years ago, and involving sending over 500 pages of farm data in order to demonstrate improvements and innovations to their operations. But with persistence and patience, the hard work seems to have paid off.
Established in 1985 by Gifford, Michael and Glenn Cooke, Cooke Aquaculture started off with a single marine cage site containing 5,000 salmon but now produces 115,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon and 20,000 metric tons of sea bass and sea bream annually, with operations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Maine, Chile, Spain, and Scotland.
In 2013, about 18,600 metric tons of salmon, worth $105 million, was produced by Cooke in marine net pens in Maine, accounting for 40% of Atlantic salmon grown in eastern North America. Cooke Aquaculture is the only salmon producer in Maine and no other ocean-raised Atlantic salmon farmer in North America has achieved the yellow rating from Seafood Watch until now, said Halse.
And this improvement has opened the door to customers in the US who follow Seafood Watch recommendations - as Halse said, “Big customers are now knocking on the door”.
"We're hopeful that in the near future we will see the same move for our Atlantic Canadian salmon," she said, adding that Cooke's current focus is to improve the Seafood Watch rating for its Canadian salmon.
"The industry has changed dramatically and there are constant improvements - even in the last few months, some of the work and innovations we implemented would change the assessment," she said. "We're optimistic we can work with Monterey to improve our rating."
Perhaps now, with the first-ever certification of an Atlantic salmon farm in the US, seafood certification programs such as Seafood Watch and Ocean Wise will be forced to acknowledge the extreme lengths salmon farmers in Canada have gone through to ensure the sustainability of the industry and their fish.
Atlantic salmon grown in Canada do not belong on the ‘avoid’ list.
