BAP issues draft hatchery standard

Hatcheries will have to show that they have taken food safety issues, and pay and working conditions for staff, into consideration under a proposed new standard from the Global Aquaculture Alliance.

The Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Hatchery Standard Issue 2.0 was published for consultation yesterday. Like the existing standard, adopted in 2014, it will apply to all aquaculture hatchery and nursery facilities for finfish, crustaceans and molluscs that produce eggs and/or juvenile aquatic animals for live transfer to other aquaculture facilities and to all species covered by the any BAP farm standards.

The new standard requires hatcheries to conduct a risk assessment of potential human food-safety risks associated with their operations.

The worker safety and employee relations requirements have also been updated, including requirements for wages and benefits, working hours including overtime, voluntary labour, child labour and young workers, use of workers from recruitment agencies, discrimination, disciplinary procedures, worker voice, and worker health and safety.

Effluent monitoring parameters and limits for land-based hatcheries have been revised and unique parameters and limits set out for RAS (recirculating aquaculture systems) facilities. water quality monitoring requirements for cages or net pens in fresh or brackish water have been revised, consistent with the approach adopted in the BAP Farm Standard Issue 3.0.

The BAP Fish In Fish Out (FIFO) limits for hatcheries using over 50 mt dry feed/year have been revised, and a requirement to calculate the Forage Fish Dependency Ratio (FFDR) has been added.

Comments on the draft Issue 2.0 are invited by 8 November.

Best Aquaculture Practices is a third-party certification programme developed by the Global Seafood Alliance, an international, not-for-profit trade association headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.

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