Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)

Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) is a powerful industry consortium that developed a set of standards known as Best Aquaculture Practices and uses Missouri-based Aquaculture Certification Council as its exclusive certifying body. Their process combines annual site inspections and effluent sampling, but allows for certain use of antibiotics and chemicals. Although GAA’s standards are more measurable than most others, they have received criticism from several organizations, including Mangrove Action Project and Environmental Justice Foundation, for flawed standards that fail to adequately protect mangrove ecosystems. As of December 2006, Wal-Mart and Darden Restaurants (parent company of Red Lobster) are set to begin using BAP-certified for all imported farm-raised shrimp. These are currently the only places where the label can be found. BAP-certified shrimp do not claim to be organic.

Naturland

Naturland, based in Germany, issued its standards on shrimp aquaculture in 1999. They, too, have received criticism for their certification process when the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation did a field study of a certified Indonesian shrimp farm and found it to be grossly inadequate. Adding to the lack of credibility of the label is the fact that Naturland has its own certification body. Still, they do not allow antibiotics or genetically modified fish or feed. Naturland-certified shrimp products are not found in many stores in the U.S. (they are more common in Europe), but are sold in many Wild Oats stores. Naturland-certified shrimp claim to be organic. The Japanese company Alter-Trade started marketing “eco-shrimp” in 1992, but later began using Naturland standards in 2002 for the certification of their shrimp.

Wild American Shrimp

Wild American Shrimp is not a certification scheme based on organic or sustainable principles, but instead on the size, flavor, texture and origin. Because the majority of shrimp consumed in the U.S. is imported from filthy fish farms in Latin America and Asia that devastate mangrove ecosystems, this label ensures it was wild caught in its natural habitat. Currently, the U.S. Department of Commerce performs inspection for the program, but Wild American Shrimp is currently considering in-house certification that would call for on-site inspectors among other changes to the inspection program.