“As with all fish, sourcing sustainably is super important,” a soothing voiceover intones as a sizzling seabass fillet comes into view. “After all,” it continues, “if we don’t eat responsibly sourced fish, there might not be any left for us in the future.”
This Instagram video – which walks viewers through a recipe that pairs the fish with udon noodles and a “soy-infused egg yolk” – forms part of a campaign run by farmed seafood label Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) and online culinary platform Great British Chefs.
Viewed nearly a quarter of a million times since it was posted in June, the reel promotes “responsibly sourced” farmed fish, with a recipe that uses BAP-certified seabass produced by major Turkish farmed fish exporter Kiliç Deniz.
However, the seafood producer showcased in this video has a track record of unsustainable sourcing in its supply chain. Kiliç Deniz has repeatedly bought feed fish – a key ingredient in the diet of farmed seabass – from West Africa, a chronically overfished and food-insecure region that has long been avoided by other major seafood brands.
Trade data seen by DeSmog shows that Kiliç bought fishmeal from Senegal until at least July last year. DeSmog calculations found that the volume of fresh fish absorbed by the Turkish producer in the five years to 2025 could have met the dietary needs of nearly two million people.
The BAP seafood label that featured Kiliç in the digital campaign has itself drawn criticism from campaigners. Groups claim the seafood label – which was set up in 2007 by seafood industry trade group Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) – is “greenwashing” unsustainable fish farms, with some critics branding the scheme a “marketing ploy”.
Great British Chefs teamed up with the BAP label to promote five BAP-certified producers in its summer campaign, which has so far reached 1.3 million people. The paid partnership also features award-winning chef Jude Kereama, owner of popular restaurant Kota Kai, in Cornwall.
Great British Chefs now has over 230,000 Instagram followers and describes itself as a “go-to for foodies looking for food recipe inspiration”. It uses its platform to “endorse a small number of brands that [it] truly believe[s] in” and “influence consumers” and “change behaviour”.
“Great British Chefs built its name on celebrating good food, but to us this looks more like greenwashing,” says Amelia Cookson, industrial aquaculture campaigner at non-profit Foodrise.
“Given the evidence that has been presented about aquaculture companies’ links to overfishing in West Africa, we call on Great British Chefs and BAP to steer well clear of this type of endorsement in future.”
Aliou Ba, oceans lead at Greenpeace Africa, told DeSmog that presenting Kiliç’ seabass as “sustainable fish” omitted an important detail. “The production of this seabass actually has contributed to the plundering of West African waters,” Ba told DeSmog. “Labelling these products as ‘BAP-certified’ does nothing to change this reality.”
A new report by campaign group Changing Markets Foundation says the fast-growing farmed seafood sector is undermining global food security. If recent trends continue, by 2040 aquaculture’s demand for wild fish may rise by up to 88 percent – and will consume up to 38 percent of the global wild catch. The burden, the report says, will fall on “already stressed and increasingly climate-vulnerable fisheries”.
Kiliç Deniz told DeSmog that it had not sourced from Senegal since May 2025. It added that its operations are regulated by the “strictest environmental and social laws and international standards”.
Great British Chefs, Jude Kereama’s team, Best Aquaculture Practice and the Global Seafood Alliance were all approached for comment.
Instagram cooking video using Kiliç Deniz seabass, posted by Great British Chefs (@gbchefs) and BAP (@bapcertification).
The BAP label is “used to verify that farmed seafood is produced responsibly, safely and ethically”, and aims to reassure buyers that fish farms carrying its stamp are complying with responsible sourcing rules for wild fish, as well as environmental, animal welfare and labour standards.
Two thirds of consumers trust BAP-certified products, and 50 percent are more likely to buy seafood with the logo, according to the programme’s recently published Chef’s Guide.
It now certifies more than 4,000 farmed fish producers and claims it “ensures aquaculture is done responsibly through its third-party certification program.”
BAP has been criticised by a number of research and campaign groups. The non-profit Aquaculture Accountability Project has highlighted conflicts of interest on its governing body – where two thirds of board members are seafood producers and distributors. BAP is funded by fees paid by the companies it certifies.
Investigations outlet Corporate Accountability Lab has called BAP a “marketing ploy that fail[s] to protect workers”. Its 2024 report found instances of labour rights violations on BAP-certified Indian shrimp farms, in contravention of the certifier’s rules. “Despite strong standards on paper,” it said, “implementation is often weak.”
The Global Seafood Alliance investigated the allegations at the time. GSA’s CEO Mike Kocsis stated that “most shrimp processors in India do uphold best practices”, adding that improvements “have led the organization on a path to a stronger and more resilient program”.
In 2025, BAP released a new Salmon Farm Standard, which was criticised in an open letter by 76 campaign groups, calling it “greenwashing” for certifying “negligent companies” that failed to protect endangered species, among other perceived failings. It was also criticised for a lack of transparency, as BAP audits have no civil society stakeholder consultation, and its reports are not publicly available.
A spokesperson for GSA, BAP’s parent company, told trade press SeafoodSource at the time that the new Salmon Farm Standard was more comprehensive, and had been modified to include improvements to “social responsibility, wildlife, and predator interactions.”
The GSA has said in previous responses that its standards have developed over time to address a variety of issues and areas for improvement, stating that “severe non-conformities and those that are not resolved within a specified timeframe result in suspension from the BAP programme.”
Agustina Copello, coordinator at environmental campaign group Global Salmon Farming Resistance took issue with the claim by the Instagram voiceover that described BAP as “the gold standard for responsibly sourced fish”, calling it “dangerous greenwash”.
“Promoting these labels gives cover to an industry that pillages ocean ecosystems,” she said.
A woman fish processor arranging stacks of smoked fish in Joal, the site of a fishmeal factory in Senegal that has led to significant job losses among fish workers. Credit: Juan Vilata / Alamy
‘Colonial Logic’
Increasing volumes of wild-caught fish are being used to fuel the high speed growth of carnivorous fish farms, which produce species like salmon, seabass and shrimp. These seafood products are mostly exported to lucrative markets in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.
One of the fish used as an ingredient for fish feed are small pelagic fish species in West Africa, such as sardinella, whose stocks in the region have been driven to the point of collapse by overfishing.
A Guardian and DeSmog investigation revealed that between 2021 and 2025, Kiliç Deniz bought thousands of tonnes of Senegalese fishmeal – made from pulverised pelagic fish – to feed farmed seafood like seabass and seabream for export to over 60 countries, including the UK.
Senegalese communities rely on small fish for a cheap source of micronutrients and employment. Species targeted by industry are traditionally smoked and dried by over 45,000 women fish workers across the country.
The fishmeal industry in Senegal drives overexploitation of depleted seas, puts women out of work, and pollutes the air and water.
Since the rapid growth of the West African fishmeal industry in the 2000s, the price of fish in Senegal has spiked, making it unaffordable to poorer families in a country where nearly half of the population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Meanwhile, Kiliç Deniz, which produces 110,000 tonnes of farmed fish per year, is Turkey’s largest farmed fish exporter, and generates $410 million (£310 million) per year in exports. Kiliç Deniz is a provider to UK retailer John Lewis’ supermarket chain Waitrose, according to their 2026 supplier list.
Kiliç Deniz told DeSmog that it “applies supplier due diligence processes and does not accept that sourcing from a particular country automatically links the company to allegations directed at an entire sector”.
It added: “Our company’s operations are regulated by the strictest environmental and social laws and international standards. Kiliç Seafood is a world leader in its field, delivering its products to numerous countries and top-tier customers with all these responsibilities”.
Kiliç informed DeSmog it had “ceased our fishmeal purchases from Senegal as of May 2025”, adding that an import recorded in July 2025 was likely the “last shipment remaining from previous agreements.”
Waitrose did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.
Aliou Ba from Greenpeace Africa said “this campaign perfectly illustrates the failings of the global seafood system.”.
“The fish of the poor feed the rich. It echoes the very same colonial logic that Senegalese fisheries have been facing for decades.”
Dining and Cooking