Most "antibiotic-free" labels in the fish business are a claim about the last fortnight before harvest. Ours is a claim about the entire life of the fish — and we keep the lab records to prove it.
The routine we replaced
Industrial aquaculture treats antibiotics the way industrial poultry does: as a baseline input to make density viable. The economics demand it. The ecology, the kitchen and eventually the consumer, pay.
What replaces it
- Lower stocking densities — the prevention every clinician recommends and almost no operator follows.
- Pre-dawn water-quality sampling on eleven parameters.
- Feed with traced provenance and an audited mycotoxin ceiling.
- Sick-pond isolation protocol — quarantine before treatment.
- Recorded therapeutic-only veterinary use, never prophylactic.
“Prevention by stewardship is slow, boring and cheap. Antibiotic prophylaxis is fast, dramatic and ruinous.”
Key takeaways
- "Antibiotic-free" should be a lifetime claim, not a last-fortnight claim.
- Stewardship and lower density are the substitute for routine prophylaxis.
- Therapeutic use is recorded; prophylactic use is forbidden.
