Animal Welfare Risks of Global Aquaculture

A new study by Becca Franks, Christopher Ewell and Jennifer Jacquet highlights the importance of aquatic animal welfare within the aquaculture industry -- an area that has been historically neglected by government, industry as well as animal welfare activists.

Until now.

A nascent movement for aquatic animal welfare has been growing in the past year, led by the Aquatic Life Institute, which founded the first alliance for aquatic animal welfare and issued the first comprehensive guide for welfare interventions in aquaculture. Since its publication, this guide has been endorsed by 25 (and counting) organizations. 

But many challenges remain, as detailed in the new study (below is an excerpt). Chiefly among them is that hundreds of aquatic species are farmed, though existing welfare knowledge is available for only about 20% of those species. Evidently, there is a huge knowledge gap that needs to be filled through a concerted effort, as aquaculture is the fastest growing food production system in the world. We urge for more research to be conducted on welfare recommendations that are species-specific; safeguarding welfare of these aquatic animals is a win-win for animal welfare and the sustainability of the industry.  

Excerpt from Animal welfare risks of global aquaculture

The unprecedented growth of aquaculture involves well-documented environmental and public-health costs, but less is understood about global animal welfare risks. Integrating data from multiple sources, we estimated the taxonomic diversity of farmed aquatic animals, the number of individuals killed annually, and the species-specific welfare knowledge (absence of which indicates extreme risk). In 2018, FAO reported 82.12 million metric tons of farmed aquatic animals from six phyla and at least 408 species—20 times the number of species of farmed terrestrial animals. The farmed aquatic animal tonnage represents 250 to 408 billion individuals, of which 59 to 129 billion are vertebrates (e.g., carps, salmonids). Specialized welfare information was available for 84 species, only 30% of individuals; the remaining 70% either had no welfare publications or were of an unknown species. With aquaculture growth outpacing welfare knowledge, immediate efforts are needed to safeguard the welfare of high-production, understudied species and to create policies that minimize welfare risks.

FAO reported that a total of 82.12 million metric tons of animals were produced in aquaculture in 2018, comprising at least 408 species distributed across six phyla, most of which were from the Chordata phylum (68% of listings). The other phyla were all invertebrates, with Mollusca (e.g., clams and mussels) and Arthropoda (e.g., shrimps and crabs) having the second and third most FAO listings, respectively. We estimate that the total tonnage corresponds to approximately 250 to 408 billion individual animals: 191 to 279 billion invertebrates and 59 to 129 billion vertebrates.

In 2018, 250 to 408 billion individual animals from more than 408 species were farmed in aquaculture. Integrating these estimates with the scientific literature reveals the magnitude of the animal welfare risk. Only 25 species (corresponding to 14 to 32 billion individuals, 7% of total aquaculture) are covered by even a modest body of welfare literature (five or more publications). The remaining 383+ species (corresponding to 236 to 376 billion individuals, 93% of total aquaculture) had few to no welfare publications. By rapidly expanding the cultivation of a wide diversity of undomesticated species, aquaculture is now characterized by the intensive management of billions of individuals in the absence of basic knowledge about how to ensure their welfare.