Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) Announces the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) for Salmon Farm Standard
August 14, 2025 | 2 min to read
The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) has announced the release of its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Salmon Farm Standard (SFS) Issue 3.0, effective August 5, 2026. This updated standard features enhanced human rights requirements, stricter humane slaughter methods, and a mandatory two-day audit duration for salmon farms. Key improvements include a focus on social responsibility, diver safety, and stronger protections for predator and endangered species, ensuring broader fish welfare and biosecurity throughout the aquaculture industry.
Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) is pleased to announce the official release of its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) Salmon Farm Standard (SFS) Issue 3.0. The standard will become effective on August 5, 2026, at which point all salmon farms must apply to Issue 3.0.
Updates have been made to make the standard more robust, including strengthened human rights requirements, stronger requirements for protection of predator species and stricter requirements for humane slaughter methods. This standard will also transition all salmon farms to a mandatory two-day audit duration.
Key changes to the standard from the previous Issue 2.4 include:
- Additional social responsibility clauses to strengthen human rights requirements
- Stricter procedures for safe diving, response to diver emergencies, requirements for diver training and certification
- Adoption of forage fish dependency ratio (FFDR) as a metric
- Stronger requirements for protection of predator species and endangered, threatened, and protected species
- More emphasis on the use and documentation of operational welfare indicators
- A greater focus on protecting the welfare of cleaner fish
- Stricter requirements for humane harvest / slaughter (with SOPs for slaughter, etc.)
- More requirements for biosecurity and fish welfare during transport or crowding
If you have any questions about the standard, please reach out to our team here.
About Global Seafood Alliance
The Global Seafood Alliance is an international, nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing responsible seafood practices through education, advocacy and third-party assurances. Through the development of its certification programs, GSA has become the leading provider of assurances for wild and farmed seafood globally. The organization’s work addresses the full spectrum of responsibility, from environmental responsibility and social accountability to food safety. Established in 1997 as the Global Aquaculture Alliance, GSA is headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., USA. To learn more, visit www.globalseafood.org.