First published in International Aquafeed,January-February 2015
Wally Stevens is acting director of the
Global Aquaculture Alliance as well as the executive director of the
Responsible Aquaculture Foundation. A 35-year veteran of the seafood industry,
Wally Stevens continues to help expand the Best Aquaculture Practices
certification program and related educational efforts on responsible
aquaculture. Previously, Stevens was president of Ocean Products and U.S. based
Slade Gorton & Co. He also helped establish the National Fisheries
Institute Future Leaders program. The Global Aquaculture Alliance is an
international, non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing
environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. Through the development
of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, GAA has become the
leading standards-setting organisation for aquaculture seafood.
What is the mission behind Global
Aquaculture Alliance?
GAA is a non-profit organisation that seeks
to promote education and training in support of responsible aquaculture. GAA
further recognises that aquaculture is the only sustainable means of increasing
seafood supply to meet the needs of the world population. Our mission is to
promote our best aquaculture practices programme. GAA encourages the use of
responsible production systems that are sustainable regarding environmental and
community needs. There is much exciting work to be undertaken in this growing
industry.
What are the main challenges facing the aquaculture
industry?
Firstly it is clear that we are going to
have to be in a position to provide food sustainably for a growing population.
The main challenges are currently disease management, feed supply, and investor
support, ensuring that no harm is done to the environment and that we are
socially responsible. Secondly, that the marketplace appreciates and expects
that the aquaculture industry will develop and perform in light of these
challenges. The marketplace will need to ensure that their expectations are in
line with such problems that we need to address.
Regarding feed ingredients, what are the
challenges that need to be addressed?
The demand for feed ingredients has doubled
in the last two decades. With regards to fishmeal, we cannot continue to keep
using the same ingredients going forward at this point in time. We must look
for a substitute for fishmeal or look for ways to extend the current supply.
Currently the demand for fishmeal from certified fisheries around the world
means that we do not have enough to support growth in aquaculture.
What were the main challenges and issues in
aquaculture addressed at this year’s GOAL conference in Vietnam?
Six major issues emerged at GOAL 2014 —
Disease risk management (including early mortality syndrome in shrimp), the
potential of zone management, aqua feed sustainability, leadership and
innovation, marketplace accessibility, and consumer education.
Currently, what is the number one challenge
affecting aquaculture's growth?
In my opening remarks at GOAL 2014 I asked
an audience of more than 400 seafood professionals, via the conference’s
audience response system, “What’s the No. 1 challenge limiting aquaculture’s
growth?” To no surprise, given early mortality syndrome’s devastating effect on
global shrimp production, health and disease management garnered nearly half of
the audience’s vote. One speaker projected global shrimp production to total
around 4 million metric tons in 2016. It would have totaled close to 4.5
million tons had EMS not existed. So health and disease management is clearly
the No. 1 challenge affecting aquaculture’s growth.
However, 13 percent of the audience
selected “consumer education” as the No. 1 challenge facing aquaculture,
outscoring environmental and social responsibility at 11 percent, feed and
investment capital at 9 percent each, leadership at 6 percent and market
support at 4 percent. What’s surprising is that just moments before I posed the
question I added “consumer education” as the seventh major challenge facing
aquaculture. Yet the audience’s response to such a poignant question is proof
that the industry still has a lot of work to do to familiarise consumers with
farmed seafood.
How does GAA's Best Aquaculture Practices
Programme Certification help to promote 'responsible practices' across the
aquaculture industry?
Best Aquaculture Practices is an
international certification program based on achievable, science-based and
continuously improved global performance standards for the entire aquaculture
supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills. What sets
BAP apart from the competition is 1) the concept of continual improvement (BAP
standards are constantly strengthened and expended) and 2) the
comprehensiveness of the program (the program covers environmental
responsibility, social responsibility, food safety, animal welfare and health
and traceability, and BAP standards for zone management are in the very early
stages of development). Here’s a summary of the five elements of the BAP
program:
Environmental responsibility - At the
hatchery, farm, feed and processing levels, BAP-certified facilities must
comply with standards that address such issues as habitat conservation, water
quality and effluents.
Social Responsibility - BAP-certified
facilities must comply with local laws for worker safety, child labor and
community rights at the hatchery, farm, feed and processing levels.
Food Safety - Standards for food safety
help ensure that no banned antibiotics or other chemicals are used during
production and that all approved chemical treatments are carried out in a
responsible fashion. Random samples of finished product are analysed by
certified laboratories for bacterial contamination and antibiotic residues to
verify that control processes are effective. The BAP seafood processing plant
standards are benchmarked against the latest Global Food Safety Initiative
(GFSI) food-safety requirements.
Animal health and welfare - Standards for
animal welfare cover a wide spectrum of best practices in animal husbandry,
including health and welfare from cultivation to harvest (such as disease
control, growing conditions and transportation). BAP standards emphasise humane
treatment throughout the life cycle.
Traceability - Supply chain traceability
from the source to the marketplace is mandated by the BAP program before a
facility can apply the BAP mark.
Read the magazine HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news
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