Tofino, BC: Creative Salmon is the first farm-raised salmon producer in North America to achieve organic certification.
The Canadian-owned company has been raising indigenous Pacific Chinook (King) salmon using sustainable methods for many years. Now it has achieved all the criteria set out in the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard.
Accredited certifying body Global Trust regularly audits Creative Salmon to verify compliance with the standard.
Based in Tofino, British Columbia, in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Creative Salmon is a small company dedicated to quality, not quantity.
“We are thrilled to be a leader in organic aquaculture,” says Tim Rundle, Creative Salmon’s General Manager. “Consumers are looking for organic product. Creative Salmon is proud to offer an organic product backed by a made-in-Canada standard.”
The standard became official in May of 2012 when it was passed by the Canadian General Standards Board.
In order to meet the certification requirements, organic fish must have twice as much room to swim as conventional farm-raised fish.
“At Creative Salmon our fish have a low density environment occupying less than one per cent of the volume of their pen, even when fully grown,” says Rundle.
The organic standard also addresses chemicals, prohibiting antifoulants on nets.
“At Creative Salmon we clean and maintain our sites and our nets by power washing with sea water or by exposing them to natural ultraviolet from the sun,” says Rundle.
As required by the organic standard, Creative Salmon’s market fish are free of antibiotics and genetically modified organisms.
“We raise a Pacific species in the Pacific Ocean so our fish are perfectly adapted to the sea conditions including a natural tolerance to sea lice which means our fish don't require treatment with pesticides,” says Rundle.
Our fish feed is composed of sustainably-sourced fish meal and fish oil. Ingredients also include certified organic wheat as a binder and a naturally sourced pigment derived from a yeast.
“Our fish are fed a diet as close to their natural one as possible in a farm setting,” says Rundle. “Our major supplier, Taplow Feeds, is a valued partner in our organic process and is also certified to the organic standard.”
The organic certification also applies to Creative Salmon’s Sea Spring Hatchery as well as Lions Gate Fisheries’ processing plants in both Tofino and Delta.
Approximately 50 per cent of seafood consumed world-wide is farm raised, making aquaculture a vital and growing industry. Creative Salmon is North America’s only major producer of Pacific Chinook salmon.
For more information please contact: Lisa Stewart, Creative Salmon Co. Ltd. Communications Officer Phone: 250.725.2884 Cell: 250-266-2124 Email: lisa.stewart@creativesalmon.com
About the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard
The Canadian General Standards Board published the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard in May 2012. A committee (including industry members, consumer advocates, regulators, and environmental organizations) developed the standard. The draft went through extensive public review before being published.
To learn more about the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard, visit the Government of Canada http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ongc-cgsb/publications/nouvelles-news/biologique-organic-eng.html or the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Association http://www.aquaculture.ca/organic
About Creative Salmon Company Ltd.
Creative Salmon was founded in 1990. Despite being one of the smallest salmon farming companies in the world, Creative Salmon is fully integrated from producing our own brood stock and smolts to raising and harvesting the fish and processing them in a plant on a dock in Tofino. To learn more about Creative Salmon, visit www.creativesalmon.com
Source: Creative Salmon Company Ltd.
