Our Practices
Blue Circle employs verifiable practices that protect our seafood and the environment at large. Our humane aquaculture techniques and wild capture methods respect natural systems and promote ecological wholeness.
Lower-Density Stocking
We give our fish room to swim. Conventional aquaculture features densely populated fish farms because of cost considerations and human convenience. This increases stress, injury, and disease among the fish and serious environmental impacts to the ocean floor. Our farmers deliberately limit the number of fish they stock in our open-net deep-water pens. In fact the pens are filled with less than 2% fish and more than 98% water. This lowers stress on the animals, allows for better water flow, minimizes benthic impact, and reduces chance of illness.
Circular Untreated Nets
We keep our nets clean and untreated. Most salmon fish farmers treat their nets with copper sulfate, a caustic material that inhibits algae growth. Copper sulfate on nets may leach into surrounding waters, affecting the environment and the fish themselves. Through the use of both algae-eating wrasse and manual power washing, our growers use nets free of copper sulfate.
Non-GMO Fish, Free of Artificial Hormones and Antibiotics
Blue Circle never uses antibiotics or artificial hormones — from egg to plate. We are audited and inspected by independent third parties to maintain strict compliance with this key practice. Furthermore, absolutely none of our fish has been genetically modified. We do not produce or sell genetically modified (GM) or genetically modified organism (GMO) fish. Period.
Natural Cleaning and Healthy Siting
Our marine biologists pioneered the use of wrasse, a small cleanerfish placed in the pens to eat sea lice off the salmon. Sea lice affect all salmon and are particularly devastating to open-ocean net-pen operations. Consequently, many farmers treat their salmon with ingestible parasiticides. We do not. Also, because our site locations are at the very top of Norway, more than 1,000 miles away from the nearest salmon farm, our fish experience extremely cold temperatures in sparsely populated waters — good for keeping sea lice populations down. This radically minimizes the chance of lice spreading to populations of wild salmon migrating nearby.
Traceability
We know where our fish come from and can verify it. Our tuna is caught in Maldivian waters and only by pole and line and handline vessels. The people of the Maldives revere tuna and enforce strict guidelines for all fishermen. International long liners and purse seiners are not allowed to fish here, enabling better traceability since all fish comes from one geographic area.
Handline/Pole and Line Fishing
Blue Circle promotes the most sustainable fishing methods. Sensitive to international concerns, our fisheries employ handline and pole and line fishing for our wild capture. These traditional, human-scale methods have a very low incidence of bycatch, reducing the mortality of species not intended to be caught and of seabirds.
Lower Density Stocking
We give our fish room to swim. Conventional aquaculture features densely populated fish farms because of cost considerations and human convenience.