The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently released Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture in response to the rapid expansion of the industry. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production sector in the world, and its growth is driven by protein demand, scientific progress, technological innovations and investment.
Although we commend the FAO for producing these guidelines, we would like to highlight several considerations that were overlooked:
🐟 Limited mention of animal welfare: Although the Guidelines encompass a broad range of topics, including governance, resource management, and social responsibility, they contain limited information on the specific welfare needs of aquatic animals. With the growing recognition of aquatic animal sentience, we encourage future versions of the guidelines to include a lot more detail on how factors like water quality, crowding, feed, disease, and slaughter impact both animal welfare and product quality on a species specific level.
🐟 Insufficient detail on handling and other stressful practices: The Guidelines provide general recommendations on biosecurity and animal welfare but lack detailed, actionable practices to ensure the humane treatment of animals. For instance, specific measures for humane handling, transportation and slaughter are not thoroughly addressed. This absence of detailed guidance may lead to inconsistent handling and treatment standards across different aquaculture operations.
🐟 Overemphasis on production efficiency: The document places significant emphasis on enhancing production efficiency and sustainability. While these goals are important, prioritising them without equally emphasising health and welfare considerations can result in practices that compromise the well-being of fish. For example, high stocking densities aimed at maximising yield can lead to stress, disease, and poor health and welfare outcomes.
🐟 Lack of species-specific welfare guidelines: The guidelines adopt a generalised approach to aquaculture, which may not account for the diverse needs of different fish species. Each species has its own environmental, behavioural, and physiological requirements. Without species-specific guidelines, there is a risk of implementing practices that are unsuitable or even harmful to certain species.
🐟 Neglect of emerging behavioural research: Recent studies have highlighted the complex behaviours and cognitive abilities of fish, underscoring the importance of behavioural considerations in aquaculture. The FAO guidelines do not include these emerging insights, potentially leading to outdated or suboptimal rearing practices. For instance, the recognition of pain perception in fish necessitates the adoption of humane slaughter methods, a topic that is not sufficiently covered in the guidelines.
Ethical Seafood Research is driven by a deep awareness of the vulnerability of aquatic ecosystems and our duty to protect them. We believe that taking good care of the animals you raise is common sense.
We invite you to learn more about our work on our website, and get in touch!
