Comment to Protect Chilean-Patagonia from Destructive Industrial Salmon Farms

Happening now -- one of the world's largest aquaculture certification groups, Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), is taking public comments to revise its standard for the salmon aquaculture industry. Global retailers like Walmart, Costco, and Kroger rely on third-party certifications like BAP and other similar certification organizations such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) or Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to provide assurances that the seafood they are sourcing is sustainably and ethically produced.

However, the current BAP standard is failing to meet its mission of ensuring "safe and ethical sourcing" of farm-raised seafood and addressing "environmental, social, food safety, and animal health and welfare at each step of the aquaculture production chain."

Certified farms that operate outside their allowed permits, falsify records, and/or operate in protected areas are getting certified every year. Certainly, this should not be considered a responsible practice. If certification of the production-level of the supply chain is broken, as it appears to be, consumers like you and global retailers bringing these products to market need to hold BAP accountable.

There has been explosive growth in the Chilean farm-raised salmon industry over the last thirty years as production has increased over 3,600% to more than 1 million tons annually -- making Chile the second largest producer of farm-raised salmon in the world. But environmentally destructive practices by many Chilean aquaculture farms are proving disastrous for the Patagonia ecosystem.

Industrial waste from net-pen salmon aquaculture pollutes the coasts and alters the landscape. Pesticides and antibiotics, used to help control disease and pests like sea lice, leech into the environment and are harmful to many native species. 350 times more antibiotics are used in Chilean salmon farming compared to Norwegian salmon farming. And between 2004 and 2021, 8.5 million salmon escaped from production centers. Because salmon species are not native to the Southern Hemisphere, their escape has significant impacts on native fish populations and local ecosystems.

But perhaps most concerning, is BAP's certification of salmon aquaculture farms operating in nationally protected areas. A good case in point is BAP's certification of six salmon farms owned by Nova Austral within Chilean Patagonia's Alberto de Agostini National Park. Nova Austral's first salmon farm to obtain BAP certification within the National Park, the Aracena 19 farm site in July 2020, was awarded certification despite an ongoing investigation by Chile's National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) into illegal practices at multiple farms within the National Park. A year after receiving BAP certification, Aracena 19 was the subject of a 1.26 million USD fine from Chile's environment regulation agency (SMA), due to the underreporting of salmon mortalities and insufficient solid waste management.

Unfortunately, Nova Austral is not an anomaly. For example, Canadian-based Cooke Aquaculture, has also been cited by SMA for overproduction at several BAP certified sites, including a Cooke site located in Laguna San Rafael National Park that produced 6,000% over its permitted volume.

In addition, just in 2023, the SMA initiated sanctions processes towards 35 companies for non-compliance. Many of these farms were at the same time being certified under the BAP scheme. Now, by not specifically excluding industrial aquaculture farms within protected areas from obtaining BAP certification, the new proposed BAP standards could facilitate the expansion of the industry even further into the pristine and protected areas of Patagonia.

It is clear that "sustainable" certifications such as the BAP are not an effective tool to keep Chilean salmon farmers from causing environmental damage in protected areas. Instead, BAP is disregarding the defined goal of protected areas to preserve biodiversity and protect against industrial activities, such as salmon farming.

With the climate crisis ever present and a landmark United Nations agreement to protect 30% of the planet by 2030, we must maintain the integrity of protected areas. We as consumers should refuse to buy salmon grown in protected areas.

Submit your comment to tell BAP that they need to do more to protect the environment. At a minimum, the BAP Standard must:

• Update BAP's certification criteria to make industrial salmon farms operating within protected areas ineligible for certification and to decertify any existing industrial farms currently operating in protected areas.