Australis if the first open ocean-farmed fish to receive Monterey Bay Aquarium's highest ranking.

Australis Barramundi Ranked A Best Choice For Sustainability

Australis Aquaculture, the world's largest producer of barramundi has announced that Australis' Vietnam farm received a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program "Best Choice" "green" rating for sustainability.

Seafood Watch experts conferred their "Best Choice" rating on Australis' off-shore marine farm after an extensive, multi-year evaluation of the company's operations. This designation represents the first ever "Best Choice" ranking for a fish grown in open marine net-pens.

Barramundi is Australia’s favorite fish and is known throughout many parts of the world as Asian Sea Bass.

Regarded as one of the most respected seafood assessment systems, Seafood Watch recommendations provide consumers, chefs and wholesale buyers with unbiased science-based guidance about the environmental sustainability of a wide range of farmed and wild-caught seafood products. For farmed fish, the program evaluates a wide range of potential impacts including feed efficiency, habitat and water quality impacts, disease, use of chemicals, and escape risks.

Australis pioneered the use of close-containment (land-based) farming and in 2007 it brought its unique approach to the pristine waters of Central Vietnam. Australis hatchs and nurses its fish in land-based tanks and complete the grow-out process in modern sea cages.

Australis Aquaculture was founded in 2004 and has been operating in Central Vietnam since 2007. The Company's farming operations draw on a hybrid approach that combines on-shore closed containment tanks with off-shore grow-out cages in the open ocean. Low-density stocking, lack of chemical usage and closely monitored feeding all contributed to the "Best Choice" ranking. Australis' land-based recirculating farm in Massachusetts received a Seafood Watch Best Choice ranking in 2006.

Josh Goldman, Australis CEO.

"We have been working toward this 'Best Choice' ranking since the very beginning," said Josh Goldman, Australis CEO.

"We received a 'Best Choice' rating for our land-based barramundi farm in 2006 and have always believed that the same level of sustainability was achievable on our marine farms. We are thrilled that Seafood Watch has acknowledged our accomplishments through the 'Best Choice' ranking and look forward to having more consumers and retailers experience the mild flavour, nutrition and sustainability benefits of our barramundi," Goldman added.

Chefs, foodies, bloggers and other food influentials in the local and sustainable food movement have been embracing barramundi and introducing it onto white table cloth menus as a substitute for popular, though endangered species like Grouper, Snapper or Chilean Seabass.

Barramundi seabass has a mild buttery flavor and a dense meaty texture; t’s not a ‘fishy fish’ and just about everyone - even kids - love it; it’s healthy, delicious and affordable.

"To see a business like Australis take the lead in innovating new and sustainable ways to farm a species like barramundi is both exciting and encouraging," said Barton Seaver, Chef and Director, Healthy and Sustainable Food Program at The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard, and a Fellow at the New England Aquarium.

About Australis Aquaculture

Australis Aquaculture is an award-winning provider of healthy, sustainable seafood, marketed under the banner of The Better Fish®, A Better Fish, A Better World, A Better You™.

The company spearheaded the introduction of barramundi as a key culinary trend in North America, and now offers a full line of barramundi products to the retail and foodservice markets under the Australis, Clean Harvest and The Better Fish brands and through private label products.

The company operates two barramundi farms and sells its products to leading retailers and foodservice companies in North America, Australia, Asia and Europe.

Source: Australis Aquaculture

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