GAA Completes Salmon Aquaculture Best Aquaculture Practices Certification Standards

The Global Aquaculture Alliance recently announced the completion of BAP standards for salmon farms. The new salmon aquaculture standards component becomes an important addition to the Alliance's Best Aquaculture Practices certification program.

The BAP standards for salmon farms apply to the cage and net pen production of salmon and rainbow trout. They join BAP's standards for shrimp, tilapia, Pangasius and channel catfish.

The BAP program also includes standards for feed mills, hatcheries and processing plants. Over 1.5 billion pounds (700,000 metric tons) of seafood are processed under the BAP program annually.

The BAP standards are based on current best practices, but continuously evolve with advancing technology. BAP strives to set standards at an achievable level to encourage a broad cross section of producers to participate and effect positive changes within the industry.

The standards can be viewed at www.gaalliance.org/cmsAdmin/uploads/BAP-SalmonF-611.pdf

Public comments and responses are also available at www.gaalliance.org/bap/comments.php

For more information on BAP, visit www.gaalliance.org/bap/

source: GAA

GAA Expands E-Communications for 2010

The Global Aquaculture Alliance is updating its communications program for 2010 with an expanded focus on electronic media. The changes include a new website design, new digital magazine and more frequent issues of the GAA Update e-mail newsletter.

GAA rolled out the new www.gaalliance.org site on January 4. Its home page features the new GAA corporate logo and categorized links to the latest reports on Best Aquaculture Practices certification, topical news and content such as material from the Global Aquaculture Advocate magazine. GAA also suggests that visitors check the GOAL page for frequent updates on the annual seafood conference.

In the ongoing evolution of GAA communications, the Global Aquaculture Advocate magazine is also undergoing changes for 2010. Its four-color format and informative content continue but the Advocate will appear in digital format on the GAA website six times each year.

As an integral part of GAA’s programming, the Advocate is distributed in printed form three times a year as a benefit to all members. Each of the six annual digital issues can be read or downloaded at www.gaalliance.org. Subscription to the free E-newsletter will ensure timely notification of the release of new magazine issues on the GAA website.

“This change is part of our efforts to strengthen GAA’s electronic communications while maintaining a relevant, high-quality magazine,"” GAA President George Chamberlain said. “We believe members will be pleased with the overall mix of information they will receive going forward.”

source: GAA news