Jennifer-Justine Kirsch
The ARA Is Expanding to a New Region
Our farm program, the Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture is adding farmers in a new region to expand our reach and help more fishes.
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More and more fishes are farmed globally, as there is a significant growth in aquaculture production in the world.
As aquaculture grows, fish welfare must grow, too.
Causes of Suffering
While welfare issues vary in type and severity from farm to farm, the broad causes of suffering farmed fishes face include:
Overcrowding
Poor water quality
Ineffective and absent pre-slaughter stunning
Diseases and parasites
Frequent inability to express their natural behaviors
Given salmons’ natural migratory and predatory drives, keeping these animals in sea cages may be fundamentally unsuitable for their welfare. As seen above, salmons may exhibit behaviors such as leaping from the water as they try to remove parasitic sea lice from their bodies.
Fish Welfare Improvements
Farmed fishes face a variety of welfare challenges, but some of these challenges are solvable.
Benefits of Improving Welfare
The welfare of fishes impacts biodiversity, human health, and business sustainability. Higher welfare is the right thing for industry, the environment, and the fishes.
How FWI Helps Fishes
We research and execute collaborative animal welfare interventions in high-priority contexts. We select these contexts based on the scale of the problem, expected tractability, and other relevant factors.
Our Work Around the World:
India
China
The Philippines
Our Impact
We work to improve the lives of farmed fishes in two main ways:
1
Programs
We directly improve the welfare of farmed fishes with our programs. We estimate that we've helped 2.1 million fishes and 1.4 million shrimps so far.
2
Research and Development
We research new interventions to reduce the suffering of some of the largest and most neglected groups of farmed fishes.
Keep Exploring
Do Fishes Feel Pain?
Study: Comparative approach to pain perception in fishes
Video: How Conscious Can A Fish Be?
Book: Do Fish Feel Pain? by Victoria Braithwaite
Book: What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe
Recent Blog Posts
Get Involved
Interested in learning more or getting involved? The main ways that people can support our work are by working with us or donating. Thank you for helping us make a better world for all sentient life!
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