Pacifico Aquaculture First To Offer Four-Star BAP Striped Bass
Striped bass is the latest type of farmed seafood to be represented by the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program.
Pacifico Aquaculture’s striped bass hatchery, farm and processing plant in Mexico recently attained BAP certification. As it sources feed from BAP-certified feed mills, the company is the world’s first capable of offering four-star BAP striped bass.
Based in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, Pacifico Aquaculture began its journey toward four-star BAP striped bass last year with the enrollment of its hatchery, farm and processing plant in the iBAP program. The three facilities successfully graduated from iBAP before applying for, and then earning, certification.
Known in the wild as rockfish or striper, Pacifico Aquaculture raises its true, striped bass in open-ocean net pens near the islands of Todos Santos, eight miles off the coast of Ensenada in Baja California. The nets are filled with fingerlings that are spawned and nurtured in Pacifico Aquaculture’s nearby hatchery, which is the first and only dedicated striped bass hatchery in the world.
Four star is the highest designation in the BAP program, signifying that a product originates from a BAP-certified farm, processing plant, hatchery and feed mill.
The three-year-old iBAP program — the “i” stands for “improvement” — is an optional precursor to BAP certification. It’s an opportunity for aquaculture facilities to be recognized by the marketplace as they improve their practices and work toward applying for BAP certification. Facilities that enroll in iBAP receive technical support and agree to a step-by-step, deadline-driven plan.
“We are incredibly proud to be the first company to bring four-star BAP striped bass to market. We also feel a deep burden to continue to live up to, not only to the high standards of BAP, but also our own internal standards of achieving a restorative business model. For this, I would like to express my deep appreciation to our staff for their daily dedication and buy-in to this vision,” said Omar Alfi, partner and managing director of Pacifico Aquaculture.
“We are thankful to the Global Aquaculture Alliance for the great work they are doing to provide a sense of confidence to a growing consumer base as well as throughout the supply chain that there are companies capable of demonstrating their day-to-day efforts to practice truly responsible aquaculture while providing maximum traceability,” added Daniel Farag, partner and CFO of Pacifico Aquaculture.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
About Pacifico Aquaculture
Founded in 2010, Pacifico Aquaculture was set on developing a business with a foundation of responsible aquaculture. The company owns and operates its own hatchery and open-ocean grow-out site in Baja California, Mexico where they harvest the commercial species, the All Saints Bay Ocean-Raised Striped Bass. This striped bass is prized for its sweet, mild flavor offering many health benefits. Pacifico Aquaculture is proud to offer consumers their products at Whole Food Market stores in the retailer’s Pacific Northwest, Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions with wider distribution to follow: http://www.pacificoaquaculture.com/. For more information, please contact: pr@pacificoaquaculture.com.
