Welfare Guide
Every year, approximately two to three trillion aquatic animals are killed in the wild and 100 billion are farmed in high-suffering conditions. Aquatic animals, compared to land animals, are killed 15:1. Yet, aquatic animals, who are intelligent, sentient beings, overwhelmingly live high-suffering, low-welfare lives, and have largely been neglected by animal advocates. Currently, the concept of what constitutes “humane fish” or “high welfare seafood product” is somewhat of a blank canvas worldwide. It has yet to be concretely defined by the public, industry, animal welfare organizations or most governments. Although labeling schemes exist for aquatic animal products, they are mostly focused on physiological health. However, the scientific animal welfare community has long known that welfare also encompasses psychological well-being and the ability to choose to engage in natural behaviors. We believe welfare standards should not only prevent the most harmful practices but also provide a positive environment where healthy aquatic animals can express their species-specific behavioral needs and preferences, and experience positive affect. We believe that, to measurably improve welfare, aquatic animal welfare standards must be species and life stage-specific.
To help define what high welfare means for aquatic animals, ALI sought feedback from global experts between 2019 and 2020, and together with our Aquatic Animal Alliance members, the first comprehensive guide to aquatic animal welfare was published in late 2020.
We identified five pillars of aquatic animal welfare and their key interventions, using the Five Freedoms (developed by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council) as guiding principles. Below is a brief overview:
1. Enriched Environment: Create an environment that meets species-specific ethological needs analogous to their ideal habitat.
2. Feed Composition & Feeding: Reduce the amount of wild-caught fish required for aquaculture feed by researching alternative feed sources, improving feed conversion ratios, and substituting carnivorous farmed species with herbivorous species. Strive for the most optimal feeding times and quantities and avoid starvation periods exceeding 72 hours.
3. Space Requirements & Stocking Density: Maintain appropriate space by species and life stage to avoid negative physical, psychological, and behavioral impacts.
4. Water Quality: Key water quality indicators should be monitored continuously or at least once a day.
5. Stunning & Slaughter: All animals must be effectively stunned before slaughter while the time elapsed between stunning and slaughter must be minimized in order to lower the risk of consciousness being recovered.
Our Key Aquatic Animal Welfare Recommendations for Aquaculture is currently available in English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. We welcome translation assistance in other languages.