Response to NGO criticism of ASC Farm Standard

ASC is committed to driving progress in responsible seafood farming—for fish, farms, people, and planet. With the global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050 and wild fisheries already at capacity, sustainable aquaculture is more vital than ever. The ASC Farm Standard is a catalyst for transformation, addressing the environmental and social impacts of seafood farming head-on.

The ASC Farm Standard is the most rigorous, science-based certification system globally, with requirements across 12 farmed species—not just salmon. The Standard was developed through extensive, transparent and inclusive multi-stakeholder consultation. It is recognised by the industry for its challenge and ambition, strengthening farming practices, supporting fish health, prioritising worker and community wellbeing, and safeguarding biodiversity.

The statements made about the Farm Standard do not accurately reflect the new requirements and in some cases are simply incorrect. The claim that the ASC Farm Standard “endorses irresponsible salmon farming practices that place wild fish and marine ecosystems at risk” is misinformed and undermines the progress that ASC and the industry has been making towards the transformation of the seafood farming sector.

It is not true to say that the ASC Farm Standard simply adopts outdated or weakened criteria from the previous Salmon Standard to accommodate “business as usual”. The Standard consolidates and strengthens requirements related to environmental sustainability, fish welfare, and community engagement, raising the bar towards environmental and social responsibility.

We recognise that meaningful and lasting change requires time and collaboration throughout the supply chain. Our NGO partners play a vital role in challenging and advancing the sector. ASC welcomes critical reflection; however, the challenge must be accurate, and evidence based.

Reflecting the latest science and best practice, ASC standards continue to evolve with input from expert working groups. The two-year transition period for certification against the Farm Standard provides time for further feedback, development and refinement, ensuring our efforts continue to protect aquatic ecosystems while advancing responsible seafood production.

Key improvements in the Farm Standard include the points below.

Sea lice management

• ASC is committed to continuous improvement in sea lice management and has strict and progressively tightening requirements regarding the use of medicinal treatments for sea lice. ASC uses the lowest sea lice limit established in the different regions today (established either by the regulators or through an industry code of practice, whichever is lower) as the ASC Sea Lice Thresholds. The claim that “allowable chemical treatments remain high” is misleading, as it does not account for ASC’s structured reduction approach. While there were no changes from Salmon Standard v1.4 to the ASC Farm Standard, the requirements include cancellation of certification in the case of non-compliance to the ASC Sea Lice Thresholds, sending a strong message to the industry to manage lice levels in a responsible manner.
• Like the current Salmon Standard, the Farm Standard continues to include requirements on the total number of medicinal parasiticide treatments applied on a site over a production cycle (the Weighted Number of Medicinal Treatments – WNMT). Indicator 4.5.12 requires sites to meet an Entry Level (EL) that expresses an initial WNMT to conform with (nine treatments in the case of Chile & Scotland), after which a 25% reduction every production cycle needs to be achieved until the WNMT is at or below a Global Level (GL) per site, (i.e. three treatments) (see Indicator 4.5.13). The Farm Standard imposes region-specific limits on sea lice treatments, based on the typical number of treatments used per production cycle in each region. Therefore, while the starting threshold may appear to be raising in some regions, ASC standards enforce a clear, measurable, and mandatory reduction pathway. This demonstrates ASC’s commitment to continuous improvement in sea lice management and responsible use, not leniency.
• Since regional ASC Sea Lice Thresholds were set to reflect different environmental and biological conditions (e.g. salmonid and sea lice species, sea lice presence and host profiles, water temperatures, ecosystems), the combination of these requirements deliver a significant improvement leading to improved performances and positive impacts. It is therefore not meaningful to make comparisons based on the ‘old 0.1 metric’ which was not linked to any peer-reviewed research findings.
• The current requirements also have a strict control mechanism once the threshold is reached or exceeded. Strict measures are applied in case farms do not reduce lice levels below the threshold limit within 21 days after exceedance. This timeline is far stricter compared to the regular non-compliance timeline, and if not achieved it requires the CAB to cancel the certificate.

Feed Standard

• The ASC Feed Standard places requirements on the origin and production practices of all ingredients, including marine, plant and other ingredients. The position of ASC on the use of marine ingredients is to set incentives for both supplying and demanding industries to address sustainability concerns, not to abandon them, and to use market mechanisms to drive this demand for improvement upwards.
• Wild-caught fish can be a sustainable and renewable resource if managed well. That is why ASC’s approach is to incentivise responsible management of reduction fisheries. The percentage inclusion of fish meal and fish oil in aquaculture feeds has decreased substantially over the past two decades. Currently, marine ingredients make up just 12% of total aquafeed ingredients globally. The assumption that a complete (global) stop on the use of fish meal and fish oil in aquaculture will stop fishing efforts, or convert caught fish only to direct (whole) human consumption, ignores the supply-demand function from other users of marine ingredients (livestock feed, agriculture fertilizer, pet food, direct human consumption) and oversimplifies the system analysis of the fishing industry and its markets.

Antibiotic use

• ASC does not permit the indiscriminate use of antibiotics and specifically prohibits the use of antibiotics designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as Critically Important Antimicrobials (CIA) for Human Medicine.
• The Farm Standard puts more emphasis on requiring monitoring for antibiotic resistance and imposing farms to take action if antibiotic treatments are not producing the expected efficacy. ASC certified farms must also have a wider health plan in place for their fish, crustaceans, bivalve and molluscs, considering issues like benthic impact, survival and health of farmed fish, water quality, origin and condition of juveniles, fingerlings or post-larvae. By encouraging this holistic approach to fish health, farms can become less reliant on the use of antibiotics.

Intermediate sites

• The ASC Farm Standard has requirements that extend beyond the final grow-out site including nurseries and intermediate sites. For land-based salmon smolts and other species such as flatfish, freshwater trout and seabass, seabream and meager, Appendix 14 of the ASC Farm Standard will apply. This Appendix means that pre-grow-out sites are required to provide documentary evidence to the final grow-out farm of compliance against 14 key environmental, social and health and welfare requirements.
• Under the Salmon Standard v1.4, intermediate sites are not covered in the ASC certification, however this is addressed in the ASC Farm Standard. The Supply Chain Criterion (1.5) of the Farm Standard requires ASC certified sites to source from suppliers that address key environmental, social and health and welfare impacts at the relevant production stages.
• Under Criterion 1.5 on Supply Chain of the Farm Standard, all salmon raised in cages regardless of the stage of production will have to be certified to be transferred to the next site and to be sold as certified. Criterion 2.4 allows the farm to only stock smolts produced in open cage culture in freshwater bodies if the supplier operates in a region where native salmonids of the same species being cultivated are present.
• The updated requirements continue to enable supply chain mapping and traceability and maintain the assurance mechanism based on supplier’s documented evidence assessed by the auditor at the certification audit. They also address previous concerns about the use of intermediate sites in salmon farming whilst not adding significant cost and complexity to species for which current standards already include a set of requirements for suppliers. These updates strengthen supply chain integrity and reinforce ASC’s commitment to responsible aquaculture.

Water quality management

• The Farm Standard requires farms to classify the waterbody in which they are located, or into which they are discharging effluents, based on the sensitivity of the waterbody to nutrient enrichment and the risk of eutrophication. A Water Quality Monitoring Network will be established to allow collaboration and sharing of information between farms located in the most sensitive waterbody type. Through this risk-based approach, farms located in more sensitive waterbodies need to conduct greater monitoring than farms located in less sensitive waterbodies.
• There are no ASC certified farms in Macqaurie Harbour.
• The new requirements also ensure changes in water quality are detected, with corrective actions implemented if the waterbody shows signs of being negatively affected by aquaculture. Requirements have also been strengthened or introduced to ensure cages are sited in appropriate locations to allow for the dispersal of nutrients and levels of dissolved oxygen are maintained at suitable levels.

Protected Areas

• ASC does not give a free pass to farm sites located in protected areas. Through the cumulative benefits of the strict requirements on performance across all our criteria, ASC ensures that the expansion of farmed seafood does not come at the cost of the environment or local ecosystems, particularly in protected areas that are vital to global biodiversity. ASC has had an expert working group in place for a number of years with membership from the scientific community and authorities in protected areas, such as the IUCN to advise on our approach. We are reviewing the membership of this group and will work together to evaluate and refine the requirements for farms located in protected areas.