Ethics and the Welfare of Fish

Bovenkerk, Bernice; Meijboom, F.L.B.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-41675-1_2

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…As such, there is considerable room for improvement in management and animal husbandry to ensure finfish production is environmentally sustainable and ethically sound. Both public and industry concerns for farmed fish welfare are increasing (Noble et al 2018;Bovenkerk & Meijboom 2020). Securing fish welfare can benefit both fish and farmer; as healthy fish have better growth (Huntingford & Kadri 2014), farmers will spend less on treatments or stock loss associated with fish in poor condition and the shelf life of the final product is longer in less stressed fish.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tag use to monitor fish behaviour in aquaculture: a review of benefits, problems and solutions

Macaulay

Warren‐Myers

Barrett

et al. 2021

Reviews in Aquaculture

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A variety of tagging techniques are now available to monitor fish behaviour, physiology and their environmental experience. Tagging is frequently used in aquaculture research to monitor free-swimming individuals within farmed populations. However, for information gathered from tagged fish to be representative of farmed populations, tagging must not fundamentally affect fish behaviour, physiology or survival. Here, we systematically review studies that used tags to monitor farmed fish behaviour and test factors that affect tag retrieval and tag-related mortality. Most studies using tags assessed movement and swimming behaviour in salmonids, predominantly in Europe and North America. Mortality of tagged fish was 10 times higher in sea-cages (mean = 25%, range = 0-61.5%, n = 22 studies) than in tanks (mean = 2.5%, range = 0-17%, n = 23 studies), while mortality of tagged fish in sea-cages was markedly higher in longer trials (from 4% in single day trials to 36% after 100 days). Higher-than-usual mortality rates among tagged fish, together with largely unknown sublethal effects on behaviour, should caution against using tagging studies to make decisions related to farm management. Moreover, key metrics such as mortality rates of tagged and untagged fish or evidence of sublethal effects are often unreported. We make several recommendations to improve future tagging studies and increase transparency in reporting. A greater insight into the causes of tagged fish mortality in sea-cages is required to secure animal welfare and data validity in studies that use tags to assess fish behaviour in aquaculture.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tag use to monitor fish behaviour in aquaculture: a review of benefits, problems and solutions

Macaulay

Warren‐Myers

Barrett

et al. 2021

Reviews in Aquaculture

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show abstract

“…Despite there being both moral plurality with regards to the moral position of fish and scientific uncertainty regarding the capacity for pain perception in fish, attitudes towards fishes are changing. Fish are considered as a part of the moral community more often and it is acknowledged that, to at least some degree, we can have moral duties towards them (Bovenkerk & Meijboom, 2020;Dutch Council of Animal Affairs, 2018;Knutsson & Munthe, 2017). This is also reflected in a fairly wide range of concerns amongst citizens / consumers, researchers, NGO's and industry with regards to fish welfare in relation to capture fisheries and fish farming (Kalshoven & Meijboom, 2013;Kupsala et al, 2013;Röcklinsberg, 2015).…”

Section: On the Moral Status And Welfare Of Animals: The Special Position Of Fishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reasons for this lack of attention may be due to the fact that knowledge in this area is limited (Veldhuizen et al, 2018). However, there may also be more fundamental moral reasons; there is still a diversity of views on what we owe to fish (Bovenkerk & Meijboom, 2020). Nevertheless, fish welfare in the commercial fisheries setting is expected to become a significant issue in the future (Kaiser & Huntingford, 2009;Lambooij et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Food and Respect for Nature: On the Moral Ambiguity of Norwegian Stakeholder Opinions on Fish and Their Welfare in Technological Innovations in Fisheries

Laursen

Meijboom

2021

J Agric Environ Ethics

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Innovation in fisheries is a global development that focuses on a broad range of aims. One example is a project that aims to develop technology for key phases of the demersal fishery operation to improve product quality and safeguard fish welfare. As this step to include welfare is novel, it raises questions associated with stakeholder acceptance in a wider aim for responsible innovation. How do stakeholders (a) value fish and their welfare and (b) consider the relation between welfare and other relevant values? To address these questions, an approach combining desk research with an empirical study was used. The desk study analysed the ethical and biological arguments for whether fish welfare should be accounted for in this context. The empirical study explored how fish and their welfare are perceived by Norwegian professionals in this industry, by conducting semi-structured interviews and subsequently analysing the results based on a labelling method we developed. The desk study showed a consensus that welfare should be considered in its own right, while at face value the interviews presented a rather instrumental view on this theme. However, analysis of the interview results leads to a more nuanced picture, where fish and their welfare are viewed from the perspective of respect for nature. Despite the apparent divergence between stakeholder opinions and the literature on the importance of welfare, we present three steps that enables professionals to be responsive to both the (moral) views of stakeholders and accounting for welfare in the innovation process fisheries.

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“…There is overwhelming and compelling evidence that fish are sentient beings that feel pain, exhibit elaborate social and reproductive behaviours, experience at least some sort of mental representation of the world and exhibit complex cognitive skills (see for example Brown, 2015; Bshary et al., 2014; Huntingford et al., 2012; Kohda et al., 2019; Saraiva et al., 2018; Sneddon & Brown, 2020). Therefore, there is an ethical imperative that the same kind of attention to the welfare of other farm animal groups should also be considered for fish (see Bovenkerk & Meijboom, 2020 for a review on this subject).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preference, avoidance, motivation and their importance to fish welfare

Maia,

Saraiva,

Gonçalves‐de‐Freitas

2023

Fish and Fisheries

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Several studies have reported the neurophysiological and behavioural mechanisms that enable fish to experience several types of affective states, such as fear, pain and joy. This is crucial for the welfare feelings‐based approach, as conditions that bring positive or negative valence to fish influence their affective state. A method to understand to what extent fish ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ their surrounding features is by evaluating their consistent choices (preferences) and propensity to reach environmental resources or traits (motivation). In this review, we propose how to assess preference and motivation tests in fish and discuss the limitations and potential biases that may affect such tests. Furthermore, we emphasize that understanding the avoidance responses of fish under a welfare context is a complementary method to improve the quality of life of fish in any type of rearing environment. Although there are other reviews about animal preference and motivation, this is the first one exclusively dedicated to the application of fish welfare.

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Ethics and the Welfare of Fish

Cited by 10 publications

References 45 publications

Tag use to monitor fish behaviour in aquaculture: a review of benefits, problems and solutions

Tag use to monitor fish behaviour in aquaculture: a review of benefits, problems and solutions

Between Food and Respect for Nature: On the Moral Ambiguity of Norwegian Stakeholder Opinions on Fish and Their Welfare in Technological Innovations in Fisheries

Preference, avoidance, motivation and their importance to fish welfare

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