Creating Standards for Responsibly Farmed Salmon

To address the impacts of farmed salmon, WWF helped create the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, a multi-stakeholder roundtable led by WWF and managed by a nine-person steering committee. The goals of the Dialogue were to:

• Develop and implement verifiable environmental and social performance levels that measurably reduce or eliminate the key impacts of salmon farming and are acceptable to stakeholders
• Recommend standards that achieve these performance levels while permitting the salmon farming industry to remain economically viable

The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue developed principles that address the key impacts associated with salmon aquaculture, as well as criteria that aim to provide direction on how to reduce each impact. The principles and criteria provide the framework for the indicators, which address how to measure the extent of each impact, and ultimately the final standards.

The standards provide quantitative performance levels that evaluate whether a principle is achieved. To develop these standards, five technical working groups were created to help research the primary issues related to salmon aquaculture: disease, sea lice, benthic impacts, escapes, feed, nutrient pollution, chemical inputs and social impacts.

Two versions (Version 1 and Version 2) of the draft standards document were developed prior to the release of the final standards. Feedback received during the two respective public comment periods was used to revise the document before the standards were finalized. The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue handed the final standards and the draft audit manual over to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), on June 13, 2012. The ASC will oversee certification of salmon farms that are in compliance with the standards.

Additional Resources
Feedback received during public comment periods:

• Feedback received on second draft of standards, May - June 2011 
• Steering Committee's responses to input received on the second draft of the standard 
• Feedback received on first draft of standards, August - October 2010 
• Steering Committee’s responses to input received on the first draft of the standards 
• Feedback received on first draft indicators November-December 2009 
• Feedback received on revised draft criteria

November 2010 Meeting

• Invitation 
• Agenda 
• Draft Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue Standards 

May 2010 Meeting

Presentations (Note: All presentations are in Spanish only)

• Welcome and background on the salmon Dialogue, by Hernan Frigolett and Rodrigo Infante 
• Overview of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, by Jose Villalon 
• Key findings of the Social Technical Working Group, by Elena Arengo 
• Developing standards through the salmon Dialogue, by Katherine Bostick 
• Next steps, by Hernan Frigolett and Rodrigo Infante
• Draft social standards for discussion English / Spanish 
• Social Technical Working Group Report English / Spanish 

March 2010 Steering Committee Meeting:

• Steering Committee Meeting Summary

November 2009 Meeting:

• Meeting Agenda
• Meeting Summary 
• Draft Indicators English / Spanish 

Presentations

• Welcome and Introduction to the Salmon Dialogue, by Petter Arnesen and Jay Ritchlin on behalf of the Steering Committee 
• Background presentation on the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, by Jose Villalon, WWF-US 
• The development of draft indicators and introduction to small group discussion, by Katherine Bostick on behalf of the Steering Committee 
• Review of Day One and introduction to Day Two small group work, by Mary Ellen Walling and Giuliana Furci on behalf of the Steering Committee 
• Next steps for the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, by Kjell Maroni and Gerry Leape on behalf of the Steering Committee 

March 2009 Meeting:

• Meeting Agenda 
• Meeting Summary
• Final Draft Principles and Revised Draft Criteria: English  / Spanish
• Disease Technical Working Group Report 
• Disease Technical Working Group Sea Lice Subcommittee Report 

Presentations

• Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue Overview, by Jay Ritchlin on behalf of the Steering Committee 
• Disease Technical Working Group Findings, by Larry Hammell
• Sea Lice Sub-group Technical Working Group Findings, by Dr. Crawford Revie 
• Draft Principles and Criteria and Breakout Session Instructions, by Katherine Bostick, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee
• Next Steps, by Katherine Bostick on behalf of the Steering Committee

November 2008 Meeting:

• Meeting Agenda
• Meeting Summary
• Draft Principles and Criteri
  
  Presentations

• Aquaculture Dialogues Overview, by Jose Villalon
• History and Progress of the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, by Kjell Maroni, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee 
• Draft Principles and Criteria and Breakout Session Instructions, by Katherine Bostick, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee
• Introduction to Indicators, by Jay Ritchlin, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee 
• Wrap Up and Next Steps, by Katherine Bostick, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee

January 2008 Meeting:

• Meeting Agenda
• Meeting Participants
• Complete Explanation of Draft Principles

Presentations

• Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, by Trygve Berg Lea, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee 
• Freedom of Information Act, by Gerry Leape
• Benthic Impacts, by Kenneth Black
• Escapes, by Eva Thorstad
• Salmon Aquaculture Principles, by Jay Ritchlin, on behalf of the Dialogue Steering Committee

December 2007 meeting:

• Meeting Agenda
• Meeting Summary

Presentations

• Economic Perspective of the Lakes Region in Chile, by Roberto Alvarez (PDF, 293kb)
• Chemical Inputs from Salmon Aquaculture, by Dr. Les Burridge (PDF, 3.4MB)
• Salmon Aquaculture in the Lakes of Southern Chile, by Jorge Leon Munoz (PDF, 2.3MB)
• Labor Conflicts in the Chilean Salmon Aquaculture Industry, by Francisco Pinto (PDF, 687kb) 
• Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, by Rodrigo Infante and Giuliana Furci (PDF, 227kb)
• Nutrients, Pelagic Ecosystems and Carrying Capacity, by Barry A. Costa-Pierce (PDF, 3MB)
• Socio-Economic Impacts of Salmon Aquaculture in Chile, by Rodrigo Infante(PDF, 282kb)
• Socio-Economic Impacts of Salmon Farming in Norway, by Kjell Maroni (PDF, 1MB)
• Social Issues in B.C. Salmon Farming, by Jay Ritchlin (PDF, 1MB)
• Life-Cycle Assessment of Farmed and Wild Salmon, by Astrid Scholz and Ulf Sonesson (PDF, 1MB) 

November 2006 meeting:

• Meeting Agenda - Vancouver (PDF, 18k)
• Participant List (PDF, 26k)

Presentations

• Background on the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue, by Alex Trent of SOTA (PDF, 138k)
• Dialogue's Technical Working Groups, by Katherine Bostick of WWF (PDF, 35k) 
• Fish Health and Sea Lice by Sonja Saksida of CAHS (PDF, 1,212k)
• CAAR and Marine Harvest Collaborative Sea Lice Monitoring by Craig Orr of CAAR (PDF, 99k)
• Fish Farms and Sea Lice Epizootics of Wild Juvenile Salmon by Marty Krkosek of U. of Alberta
• Aquatic Animal Health and Salmon Culture in Canada, by David Rideout of CAIA (PDF, 39k)
• Disease Epidemics by Alexandra Morton of Raincoast Research (PDF, 2,434k)
• Fish Farms in the Musgamagw Traditional Territory by Robert Mountain of MTTC (PDF, 7,676k)
• Speaking Notes from Richard Harry of the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association (PDF, 21k)
• Feed Conversion Efficiency in the Salmon Industry in Chile by Rodrigo Infante of SalmonChile and Rodrigo Pizarro of Fundación Terram (PDF, 341k)

November 2005 meeting:

• Meeting Agenda and Attendees (PDF, 32k)

July 2005 meeting:

• Meeting Summary, Puerto Montt (PDF, 187k)

February 2004 meeting:

• Meeting Agenda (PDF, 95k)
• Welcome Speech (PDF, 104k)
• Draft Research Priorities (PDF, 88k)
• Participants (PDF, 69k)

Learn more:

• Salmon Dialogue process guidance document English / Spanish
• Salmon Dialogue additional resources
• Steering Committee and technical working group members
• Salmon Dialogue frequently asked questions
• Salmon Dialogue fact sheet English / Spanish
• Fact sheet about what to consider when buying farmed salmon
• Research paper about salmon