ASC Variances and Process

SeaChoice has urged the ASC to revise its variance process to include regional stakeholders and independent subject-matter experts.

Seachoice’s What’s Behind the Label report found that the Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s (ASC) variance process is overriding the multi-stakeholder agreements on which the Salmon Standard’s social licence is based. Variances represent approved departures or exemptions from the Standard criteria. In fact, variances from the ASC Salmon Standard criteria enable B.C. farms to be certified.

Seafood Watch’s “Good Alternative” recommendation ignores varied criteria

In June 2017, the Seafood Watch program published a new “good alternative” recommendation for ASC-certified farmed salmon, following a benchmarking review of the Salmon Standard. The Seafood Watch review suggests that salmon farmed on ASC-certified Canadian farms merits the “Good Alternative” ranking—except Canadian farms certified by ASC don’t actually meet the criteria reviewed by Seafood Watch.

The review looked exclusively at the Salmon Standard as written, and did not review its practical application. In Canada and elsewhere in the world, ASC has approved Variance Requests that substantially alter the Salmon Standard in practice. As a result, we disagree with Seafood Watch’s recommendation.

About ASC Variances

Variance requests allow auditors to seek an ASC interpretation of, or variance from, either a Standard criterion or a formal requirement of the audit process. Requests are submitted directly to the ASC’s Variance Request committee. The process lacks stakeholder engagement or third-party oversight.

Once a variance has been approved, it can be re-applied to “an identical situation”. This has resulted in auditors frequently reapplying variances in a blanket form — across regions and regulatory regimes.

ASC’s own accreditation body Accreditation Services International (ASI) warned ASC that variances that substantially alter the intent of the Standard and are “probably putting at risk the program integrity”. They further recommended, “In case a VR changes the original intent of the Standard it is recommended that this should not be possible without public consultation and stakeholders review”.

ASC Certified Salmon Farms in Canada and the Sea Lice Variance

Variances granted with respect to the Salmon Standard criterion for sea lice levels defer to DFO’s Pacific Aquaculture Regulation defined three motile L. salmonis per fish instead of the Salmon Standard’s threshold of 0.1 female lice per fish during sensitive wild fish migration periods. The variance has been applied to benefit all B.C. salmon farms.

Industry-reported sea lice counts for the 10 ASC-certified salmon farms — operating during the 2016 sensitive juvenile wild salmon migration period — show that none of the farms would have been able to meet the ASC salmon standard lice level limit. Sea lice counts ranged from 0.2 to 6.6 female lice per farmed fish.

Audit evidence shows that auditors routinely cite the variance number and the PAR regime, but no compliance with a metric threshold is required — no upper limit on absolute lice abundance or on lice per fish is applied. This has led to the anomalous situation in which farms with adult L. salmonis levels as high as 19 motile lice per fish are being certified.

ASC Variances in Other Countries

The ASC has granted variances from the salmon standard in other countries as well.

In Australia, ASC defers to local regulation for benthic and water monitoring. This results in Tasmania salmon farms being exempt from two environmental indicators of the standard. Benthic and water quality impacts from salmon farming remain a serious concern in some parts of Tasmania.

In Norway, five variances have been approved for farms that exceeded their sea lice chemical use score. One Norwegian farm with a pesticide score nearly 4.5 times that of the required standard remains certified.

In Chile, the PTI threshold was varied by ASC in favour of the Chilean Fisheries Authority’s regulations. Chemical use is a serious environmental concern in Chile, where lice are exhibiting resistance to some treatments.