SALMON AQUACULTURE DIALOGUE

The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue (SAD) has released a working draft of standards for salmon grow-out and smolt production. These standards cover seven key principles: legal compliance, biodiversity conservation, protection of wild populations, resource efficiency, disease management, social responsibility, and community engagement. The document specifies measurable indicators and performance levels, such as limits on sea lice, forage fish dependency ratios, and labor rights. Once finalized, these standards will be managed by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) for third-party certification.

• The standards establish a precautionary 'Allowable Zone of Effect' (AZE) defined as a distance of 30 meters from cages to monitor benthic impacts.
• To protect wild salmonid populations, the draft requires that farms in areas of wild salmonids maintain average sea lice levels at a maximum of 0.5 mature sea lice per fish or 3 total sea lice during juvenile outmigration.
• The standards aim to reduce the industry's dependency on wild forage fish by setting a Fishmeal Forage Fish Dependency Ratio (FFDRm) of less than 1.31 and a Fish oil Forage Fish Dependency Ratio (FFDRo) of less than 2.85 for grow-out.
• The draft prohibits the use of transgenic salmon and the use of non-native species for sea lice control or on-farm management.
• To minimize the impact of acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) on marine mammals, the standards require a total phase-out of these devices within two years of the standards' publication.
• The standards require that 100% of dead fish be removed and disposed of, and that a maximum mortality rate of 25% be maintained over the previous two production cycles.
• For smolt production, the standards propose to phase out all net pen production within a few years, specifically prohibiting net pens in areas where native salmonids exist.

APA

WWF International (2010). SALMON AQUACULTURE DIALOGUE. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/859/4n9j2ipee0_SAD_Standard_First_Draft.pdf

Chicago

WWF International. SALMON AQUACULTURE DIALOGUE. 2010. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/859/4n9j2ipee0_SAD_Standard_First_Draft.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF International |title=SALMON AQUACULTURE DIALOGUE |date=3 August 2010 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/859/4n9j2ipee0_SAD_Standard_First_Draft.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfinternational2010salmon, author = {{WWF International}}, title = {{SALMON AQUACULTURE DIALOGUE}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2010}, month = aug, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/859/4n9j2ipee0_SAD_Standard_First_Draft.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }