2024 was a pivotal year for Ethical Seafood Research (ESR), marked by significant strides in our mission to improve the welfare of aquatic animals. From Egypt to Kenya, India to Zanzibar, we’re impacting the lives of millions of fish!
Strategic Projects and Partnerships
Egypt
To amplify our impact, we forged strategic partnerships with key organisations. Our collaboration with FAI and AQUAVET EGYPT has been instrumental in bringing FAI’s innovative Tilapia Welfare App and training programmes to Egypt. After MURILO QUINTILIANO and Sara Barrento from FAI visited Egypt with ESR Founder Wasseem Emam, Dr. Mahmoud Eltholth from Royal Holloway, University of London, Dr. Ahmad Hamza from Aquavet Egypt, Dr. Radi Ali from Kafr El-Sheikh University, and ESR’s Eng. Mohamed Bakr, the tools they put in place have continued to empower fish farmers to improve fish welfare. We’re already improving the welfare of over 260 million individual fish in Egypt, reaching 15% of the entire sector!
In partnership with Nautilus Collaboration, Aquavet Egypt, and Kafrelsheikh University, we’ve launched a new project to improve tilapia welfare during harvest, thanks to funding from Open Philanthropy. The trip to kick it off was a great success, thanks to Wasseem Emam, Dr. Sarah Wahltinez, Dr. Christian van Rijn, Dr. Mahmoud Eltholth, Dr. Ahmad Hamza, Dr. Radi A. Mohamed, Eng. Mohamed Bakr, Hadeer Ahmed, Amada Perales Ferrer, Shelly Steffler, Mohamed Eldhshan, Mariam Nasser, Islam Elsaid and Ibrahim Goda. Many thanks to Christine Huynh for her support in bringing this project to life.
2024 also saw us sign a number of strategic memoranda of understanding with key partners on the ground, such as the Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research (CLAR – Agricultural Research Center – Egypt), Cairo University, and Kafr El-Sheikh University, and agree one in principle with WorldFish. Thanks to Prof. Refaat El-Gamal, Prof. Haitham Amer, Prof. Radi Ali, and Dr. Ahmed Nasr-Allah for their support in getting these over the line.
Zanzibar
In Zanzibar, our partnership with the Zanzibar Fisheries and Marine Resources Research Institute and the Zanzibari Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries has continued to bear fruit. Led by Wasseem Emam and Abdulrahman Banisheyba, in collaboration with Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd’s Tim Huntington, this ambitious project aims to set the region’s budding aquaculture industry on an ethical and sustainable footing from the start. Alongside Poseidon, we completed a round of stakeholder consultations across both Unguja and Pemba islands earlier this year. Thanks to Zahor El Kharousy from the Ministry of Blue Economy & Fisheries, and Zakaria Khamis and ABDALLA BAKAR from the Zanzibar Fisheries and Marine Resources Research Institute for facilitating.
Kenya
We now have non-profit status in Kenya!
We kicked off the year with an interactive training workshop for over a dozen fish farmers from the Nairobi metropolitan area on the importance of careful handling and efficient feeding practices. A seed grant from The Pollination Project Foundation made this work possible. Many thanks to the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) for co-hosting this with us.
The event was a great success thanks to our excellent speakers including Paul Mumina (Directorate of Aquaculture at @Kenya Fisheries Service,), Faisal Qureshi, Dennis Bahati(ANAW), Dr. Calvin Solomon Onyango (World Organisation for Animal Health, WOAH), Dr. Virginia Kinuthia, Audrey Nyambura (Tunga Nutrition) and James Muraya (Fisheries and Aquaculture, Nairobi County).
Further funding from The Pollination Project, combined with the industrious efforts of Dr Mwenda Mbaka and Faisal Qureshi, allowed us to complete the baseline survey of fish farming practices, despite serious flooding throughout the country hampering our progress.
Research and Innovation
Research remains a cornerstone of our work. With this in mind, we secured a grant from the Joanna Toole Foundation to look deeper into the welfare implications of current caviar production practices, along with Chris Bryant & Abby Couture at Bryant Research and Helen Lambert of Animal Welfare Consultancy.
We also supported a comprehensive scoping study in India, led by Shreya Padukone and Ravi Teja Sangeetha, in collaboration with the Animal Law Centre and Fish Welfare Initiative. This study assessed the impact of unregulated aquaculture on the Kolleru Lake ecosystem. Findings from the study shed light on the urgent need for sustainable aquaculture practices to protect biodiversity and human health.
Dr Bevin Meyer and Wasseem Emam finalised a report entitled “An overview of operational welfare indicators for farmed Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)“. Many thanks to EA Animal Welfare Fund for the generous funding (The Centre for Effective Altruism). We also published our report on Animal Advocacy in Egypt with the help of Melinda Jackson, Yara Moussa Sultan, Shaileen McGovern and Wasseem.
Our team also published several key papers: 1) Dying for a canape: the welfare implications associated with both traditional and “ethical” production of caviar from sturgeon co-authored by Helen Lambert and Wasseem Emam, 2) Welfare implications of closed-cycle farming of Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) co-authored by Bevin Meyer and Wasseem Emam, and 3) A review of Kenyan inland aquaculture with an eye to the status of animal welfare in the sector authored by Wasseem Emam, Christina Zantioti, Jacob Prah, Valerie Monckton, Stuart Craig and Helen Lambert.
Advocacy and Outreach
ESR has been actively involved in advocating for stronger welfare regulations for aquatic animals through participation at various key fora. Wasseem, Amada, Mohamed Bakr, Hadeer, Dr. Mahmoud Eltholth, and Dr. Radi Ali have all represented ESR at high-profile events such as Aquaculture Africa 2024 in Tunisia (African Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS AC)), the 8th Annual Africa Animal Welfare Conference in Kenya (African Union – Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)), the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare International Animal Welfare Conference in Portugal, the Animal Welfare Research Network Annual Meeting in Northern Ireland, the Blue Food Innovation Summit in London, the Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit in the USA, the Conference on Animal Rights in Europe (CARE) in Poland (Anima International) and the AQUAPONICS ASSOCIATION virtual conference.
Empowering the Future
To further our mission, we’ve expanded our team with the addition of Amada Perales Ferrer as Head of Operations and Hadeer Ahmed as Communications Specialist. We also welcomed Faisal Qureshi back as our Country Manager for Kenya after a brief hiatus to finish up projects on hen welfare with our allies Healthier Hens.
We also registered for non-profit status in Spain to set the foundation for our corporate outreach work there that Amada will be leading in 2025.
And we reached a huge milestone – our ESR Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa is now open in Egypt! Having a physical space in the heart of Egypt’s fish farming region will give us a base from which to manage ongoing projects centred around improving production practices. We also launched our online store selling ESR merchandise in partnership with Damien Aymerich at Studio Bonobo.
A Brighter Future for Aquatic Animals
Early in 2025, we look forward to the launch of the fish welfare training module developed by ESR, Carlos Vera, Carolin Breitenbach, Wendy Phillips, and María Victoria Larrateguy of VETS UNITED and WTG e.V. | Welttierschutzgesellschaft, the aquatic animals activity book authored by Anne Marie Wells, and the release of the report on the status of animal welfare in Egypt, co-authored by ESR and George Bridgwater and his team at Animal Ask.
We remain committed to our vision of a more compassionate and sustainable future for aquatic animals. We will continue to conduct groundbreaking research, implement training programmes, partner with industry leaders, and advocate for stronger animal welfare regulations. Through the power of partnerships, we can create a world where the welfare of aquatic animals is recognised and prioritised as part of a sustainable food system.
