Aquatic animals are the largest category of animals killed for human consumption. Approximately 124 billion finfish and 440 billion shrimps are farmed annually in high-suffering conditions.  1.1 to 2.2 trillion wild fish and 25 trillion shrimps are slaughtered each year.

Not only are the numbers staggering, but so are the harms they face, from the day they hatch to the day they’re slaughtered. Overwhelmingly, fish live high-suffering, low-welfare lives, and have been historically neglected by animal advocates, creating opportunity for tractable welfare improvements. 

Worldwide, there is a massive and growing push to expand aquatic animal farming, often called the “blue revolution." Data from the FAO shows that more than 51% of aquatic animal products consumed globally now come from farms, and this number is rising, with aquaculture considered the fastest growing food sector. Product certifiers, retailers, and consumers are slowly taking an interest in animal welfare, but aquatic animals have largely been left out of this discussion.

As a result, the Aquatic Animal Alliance addresses the dire state of aquatic animal welfare through a multi-prong strategic approach, ensuring global coordination but also adapting strategies and guidelines for local and regional contexts. 

The basic tenets of our advocacy are compiled in our Key Welfare Recommendations for Aquatic Animal Welfare in Aquaculture, addressing the 5 pillars of welfare for aquatic species: Water quality, Stocking density and space requirements, stunning and slaughter, feed composition and environmental enrichment. These recommendations can be used and adapted by industry and policy stakeholders, tailored to specific species and life-stage requirements, production systems, geographies and local contexts. 

Our Key Aquatic Animal Welfare Recommendations for Aquaculture is currently available in English, French, German, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese. We welcome translation assistance in other languages.

In an equally important context, we also highlight the welfare issues concerning wild-capture fisheries, where animal welfare practices have been pretty much non-existent. Our Key Welfare Recommendations for Marine Capture Fisheries summarize the most pressing issues that this industry must address: Capture and retrieval, onboard handling, stunning and slaughter, bycatch and ghost gear.