Green orgnaisations, businesses and fishers from across Canada and the US have submitted a joint letter to the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) opposing proposed draft Organic Standards for Finfish Aquaculture. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), together with the other signatories, has appealed the CGSB to reorganize the weak draft and develop organic aquaculture standards that are in line with basic organic principles.
According to the information the proposed Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standards would cover the certification of seaweed and shellfish as well as finfish, but the most troublesome sections of the standards relate to the production of fish raised in open net pens. The proposal also mention the finfish standards which would grant open net pen farmed salmon organic certification despite the large body of scientific evidence linking this farming practice to wild salmon declines and other impacts on the marine environment.
Kelly Roebuck of Living Oceans Society, a member group of CAAR, said that consumers, organic farmers, conservation organizations, fishermen and scientists all agree that these proposed standards fail to meet our expectation of what’s behind the organic label. He said that a Canadian organic aquaculture standard should reflect practices that address the well-researched impacts of open net pen aquaculture.
The CAAR recalls that in order to protect consumers from weak foreign certifications, Canada and the US currently have an equivalency agreement for organic standards. And claims that weak
