Atlantic salmon

Most ASC certified salmon is currently produced in Norway, Chile, Canada and the Faroe Islands. They are cultured in cages / net pens in the sea. This is an open system. ASCASC:
Aquaculture Stewardship Council, a worldwide eco-label for responsible cultivated fish. salmon has been available since 2014. Nowadays, ASC salmon is also produced in land-based RAS systems. ASC is a credible ecolabel that has developed its salmon standard according to ISEAL guidelines – multi-stakeholder, transparent, incorporating science-based performance metrics. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s standards (ASC) are designed to encourage responsible farming by minimizing the environmental and social impact of aquaculture. The ASC standard includes criteria for feed, use of antibiotics, salmon lice, water and soil quality, but also the distance from the assessed farm to neighboring farms and working conditions for employees. For some issues, for example GMO products in fish feed, there are no criteria, but farmers need to be transparent about use.  ASC has made it possible to make a large-scale impact.

Despite strict policy and improved culture conditions, ASC cannot remove all negative impacts of salmon culture. ASC is therefore a responsible choice, but not a complete sustainable one.

Fish & Season

Farmed fish is year round available.

In general, salmon require a lot of wild fish to grow. It is important that these are sourced from sustainable fish stocks. This is the case with organic fish. In organic farming, the percentage of wild feed in the feed is as low as possible. Also, no genetically modified products are used. In organic farming, there are extra criteria for welfare and the use of additives and medicines.
There are several organic ecolabels, all of them must fulfill the requirements set by the European standard for organic fish. This label can be recognized by the European organic sign.

Fish & Season: 

Farmed fish is year round available.

Most salmon is cultivated on a large scale in Norway, Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands. The management in Europe is well done and strict. Despite this we cannot take away most negative effects like [eutrophication], spread of sea lice, diseases, and the negative effects of escapes on the wild salmon population. There has been much research on optimizing the feed, which resulted in a decrease of fish oil and fish meal in the salmon feed. However, the wild fish content is still relatively high.

The salmon stock in the Baltic Sea is recovering. It is difficult to assess the current state of the stock, and therefore an estimation is made based on the number of migrating juveniles from rivers.

There is little known about the composition and size of bycatch in fyke fisheries. There are known cases of bycatch of seals. Fishing with fykes does not damage the seafloor.

The governance of salmon fishery is partly effective. A management recovery plan is in the works. It is also important to take additional conservation measures. These measures can include habitat recovery and the removal of migration barriers.

Chile started cultivating salmon at the end of the 70’s. The salmon industry is thereby relatively young. Until 1991 Chile didn’t produce more than 10.000 tons per year, but nowadays they produce more than 550.000 ton salmon, and is after Norway the biggest salmon producer in the world.

Unfortunately, this impressive growth was not supported by policy, research and supervision to protect the sector from biological risks. In 2007 there was an outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA). To combat this disease antibiotics usage was increased. Now the usage of antibiotics is still extremely high.

Salmon is not indigenous to Chile and escapes are therefore a big concern. Another big concern is the feed which doesn’t use sustainable ingredients.