The fish farming industry is developing similarly to the poultry production chain. Fish production is being intensified through breeding programs, feed formulations aimed at higher feed conversion, increasingly shorter lifespans, and the production of animals with ever higher meat yields.

This project aims to estimate the time in pain averted with the implementation of different welfare standards in the fish farming industry, including improvements in water quality, transport and handling procedures, restrictions on fasting, management of stocking densities, and use of effective stunning prior to slaughter.

We chose the Atlantic Salmon as the first farmed fish species to investigate for several reasons:

(A) Data availability: salmonids are possibly the best-studied farmed fish species in terms of welfare, behavior, and physiological markers of pain. Starting with a species with a stronger evidence base should also help support the validity of pain assessments in fish among different audiences.

(B) Scale: the salmon farming industry is likely to have a large footprint of suffering. The species has one of the longest lifespans in captivity (about two years). Also, as a species farmed relatively recently (only a few generations from its wild ancestors), Atlantic salmon experience very high disease and mortality rates. This is also demonstrated by the high volume of antibiotics used as prophylactics by some producers (particularly developing countries) in the industry – possibly the most industrialized intensive aquaculture system today. Additionally, Atlantic salmon are carnivorous, so for every farmed fish the loss of welfare incurred includes that of a large number of individuals used to make fishmeal and fish oil ( Atlantic salmon consume the largest share of fishmeal and fish oil in aquaculture). Likewise, salmon farms often use large numbers of cleaner fish to treat sea lice infections, with several issues compromising their welfare.

(C) Production trends: salmon is increasingly seen as a prestigious and healthy commodity in developing countries, with growth partially driven by rising incomes and urbanization in emerging markets, particularly in East and Southeast Asia. China, in particular, is becoming a major salmon importer and Chinese farmers are now beginning to farm salmon and trout. Since 2013, salmon is also the largest single fish commodity by value.

We will soon be looking for collaborators to work with us on this project. If you are interested, please get in touch!