Key Animal Welfare Guide for Aquaculture Receives Broad Support
AQUATIC LIFE INSTITUTE NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christine Xu. Christine@ali.fish. +34.657.070.618.
The Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) is pleased to announce overwhelming support for our Key Aquatic Animal Welfare Recommendations for Aquaculture. This guide was developed last year after consulting with global experts and has become a key advocacy tool in the nascent aquatic animal welfare movement. Supported by over 40 global animal rights and ocean conservation organizations, the guide allows advocates to urge for consistent and high welfare asks in their own work, harmonizing the movement from the onset.
Animal welfare issues in aquaculture have been documented by several organizations here, here, and here and require swift and urgent action, as aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector in the world, already supplying over 50% of the fish that people consume. However, unlike farmed terrestrial animals, aquaculture involves hundreds of different species, while existing welfare knowledge is available for only about 20% of those species, according to a new study.
“ALI’s mission is to use the best available science in creating effective interventions for aquatic animals. Our welfare guide is the first step in attempting to address this knowledge gap through a concerted effort by offering five main pillars of aquatic animal welfare and their key interventions,” says William Bench, founder of ALI.
Those pillars revolve around creating an environment that meets species-specific ethological needs analogous to their ideal habitat, reducing the amount of wild-caught fish required in aquaculture feed, providing appropriate space requirements and stocking densities, maintaining quality water, and requiring effective stunning and slaughter methods.
“As a new area of research, we continue to monitor new findings on aquatic animal welfare and welcome additional species-specific insights and knowledge. We are confident that what we are advocating for currently is the best available welfare standard for commonly-farmed aquatic animals,” states Tessa Gonzalez, researcher at ALI.
The welfare guide has been a central piece in our certifier campaign to draw attention to and improve existing fish product certification standards. We urge all labeling schemes to take into account the welfare of aquatic animals required in the entire chain of aquaculture production, including cleaner fish, feeder animals, and broodstock, as well as the process of catching fish in the wild used for aquaculture and livestock feed.
“Welfare considerations in aquaculture can serve as a cross-cutting solution to issues such as biosecurity, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, food security, and climate change. Safeguarding welfare of these aquatic animals is a win-win for animal welfare and the sustainability of the fisheries industry. This is why it is particularly exciting that many ocean conservation groups from our Coalition for Aquatic Conservation (CAC) are also in support of our welfare guide,” adds Christine Xu, Head of Strategic Initiatives and the CAC at ALI.
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Aquatic Life Institute: The Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) operates from effective altruism principles to support and accelerate activities that positively impact aquatic animals on an international scale. Our core pillars of work are research, coalition building and creating institutional and market change to shift how aquatic animals are utilized (e.g. by industry), and how their welfare is defined and governed (e.g. by standards, certifications, policies and guidelines). Modeled after the Open Wing Alliance, ALI founded the first alliance for aquatic animals, the Aquatic Animal Alliance.
Our Key Aquatic Animal Welfare Recommendations for Aquaculture is currently available in English, Spanish, Chinese, French,and Japanese.