We’re bringing welfare into sustainability.
Most aquatic animal certification schemes focus on sustainability. However, most don’t focus nearly enough on animal welfare. We want to change that.
Our Vision
Consumers care about animal welfare. Often, these consumers will rely on certifications to guide their purchases. At present, many certifiers have standards related to environmental and other concerns, but have far fewer requirements when it comes to animal welfare criteria, creating confusion for consumers. We want certifiers to implement robust animal welfare standards that are guided by the latest and best research and live up to their promise of more ethical production practices.
The Problem
There are numerous labeling schemes and standards for terrestrial animal products, such as “cage-free,” “humanely-raised,” and "free-range." While these terms represent a public awakening to farmed animal welfare issues, they have also facilitated confusion among consumers and misleading marketing void of true meaningful improvement. As the public similarly awakens to aquatic welfare, we want to avoid confusion for those who buy aquatic animal products. We want certification schemes to treat animal welfare as an integral component in the concept of “sustainability” — because it is. Healthy aquatic animals, in both physical and psychological terms, translate to less stress and disease, less antibiotic use, and fewer deaths before they even reach the market, reducing resource use, antibiotic-resistance, and environmental degradation in our oceans.
Our Asks for Aquatic Animal Welfare
Enriched Environments
Environmental Enrichment is one of the most neglected areas of farmed aquatic animal welfare. In order to express their natural behaviors, aquatic animals must be provided with an environment that meets their species-specific ethological needs in a way which is analogous with how they would prefer to live in their ideal habitat. It’s time to ditch barren tanks and ensure enriched environments for all farmed aquatic animals.
Space Requirements & Stocking Density
Stocking density levels appropriate for species and life stage must be maintained to avoid negative physical, psychological, and behavioral impacts. Producers should strive to increase the total swimmable water volume per individual to reflect the species needs. No fish should be so overcrowded that she can’t even swim.
Feed Composition & Feeding
Appropriate feeding is critical for good animal welfare. Producers, where possible, must move toward the use of alternatives to animal-based feeds, higher feed efficiency ratios (while maintaining good nutrition and health), and the substitution of carnivorous farmed species with herbivorous species, extractive species, and systems where animals and their feed are coproduced.
Water Quality
Key water quality parameters—including but not limited to: oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, pH, temperature, turbidity, salinity, ammonia, and nitrate—should be monitored continuously or at least once a day. Water quality assessments must be coupled with an action plan in case poor water quality is detected. Just as land animals need air they can safely breathe, aquatic animals need safe water.
Stunning at Slaughter
All aquatic animals must be effectively stunned before slaughter. The method used for stunning should be adequate for each species and shall render the animal immediately and fully unconscious (i.e. within one second by a scientifically-validated method) and not just immobilize the animal. In 2020, there is no reason any animal should be conscious at the time of slaughter.
Additional concerns:
Transport & Handling
Where handling is absolutely necessary, it shall be carried out with minimum stress and disturbance for both the aquatic animals handled and any other aquatic animal present. Handling should occur for the shortest time possible, and anaesthetic must be applied if handling is expected to exceed a few seconds. In all new facilities, slaughter must occur on site to reduce transportation and handling. Where this is not possible, transport and handling prior to slaughter must be as limited as possible.
Health: Medical Treatment Including Parasite Management, Routine Mutilations & Antibiotics
Farmed aquatic animals are often exposed to disease and parasites. In order to minimize the effects on welfare, effective prevention strategies should always represent a first line of defence against disease and parasites. The methods used for removal of parasites must conform to rigorous scientific welfare documentation, and steps must be taken to reduce the adverse effects on the welfare of all animals used in this process (for instance, the welfare of cleaner fish used for the treatment of sea lice).
Welfare Indicators & Adequate Training
Welfare indicators used to monitor the above must be specific to species, lifestage and holding environment. The current best practice, evidence-based behavioral and physiological welfare indicators, must be used. On-farm protocols evaluating the psychological aspects of welfare must be required as soon as they are scientifically validated and available. All staff must be adequately trained to implement and monitor the above standards.
Data-Driven Approach
All these recommendations must respond to the best available science, and producers should actively seek to expand and share knowledge of best practices in aquatic animal husbandry. Availability of data on the wellbeing of animals is in the public interest, including data generated in private facilities. All farms must record and retain records of disease, treatments, transport, mortality rates, and causes of mortality for all animals in their care, and must use these records actively to further improve conditions within their production.
Predator Killings & Impact on Wildlife
Lethal predator control techniques should not be used on any species, regardless of whether they are listed as threatened or endangered. Harmful or lethal measures to control predators should be banned, and the use of preventative measures should be promoted. Every effort must be made to ensure the biosecurity of the farm, including the prevention of disease transmission as well as genetic dilution of wild fish stocks.
Why We Focus on Certification
35% of global aquatic plant and animal products are either certified; rated red, yellow, or green to indicate their level of sustainability; or are in an improvement project. This means that certifiers not only set the bar for the most ethically produced aquatic animal products on the market, they also represent approximately 1 in 3 aquatic animal products around the globe.
Some certifiers have begun to incorporate welfare recommendations, we want to make sure that these recommendations make a meaningful change to fish and other aquatic animal's lives
Credit to Compassion In World Farming
This is a pivotal moment: We're looking to major certification schemes right as they begin to add welfare standards into their labeling programs. This is a unique opportunity to help define what a higher welfare product actually is, and to ensure that certifiers and labeling schemes include meaningful, high standards from the get-go to avoid confusing consumers later on.
Our Work So Far
GLOBAL G.A.P.
We have collectively voiced feedback about four of the largest certifiers and we’ve brought together seven leading animal organizations to collectively voice feedback to certifier GLOBAL G.A.P. on their forthcoming seafood standards, emphasizing a need for aquatic animal welfare standards that are species and life stage-specific. Read the statement here.
Best Aquaculture Practices Statement
We’ve brought together nine leading animal organizations to collectively voice feedback to certifier Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP).
About the Aquatic Animal Alliance
Initiated by the Aquatic Life Institute, Aquatic Animal Alliance unites animal nonprofits around a common goal of decreased aquatic animal suffering.
We add our collective voice to initiatives, share research insights, and coordinate campaigns as part of a cohesive, multi-pronged, worldwide movement.
