Pushing fish welfare up the aquaculture agenda

#Act4
Aquatics

Pushing fish welfare up the aquaculture agenda

17 August 2020
CIWF
News
Following the launch of its Rethink Fish campaign, which aims to increase the emphasis on fish welfare, Compassion in World Farming’s Dr Krzysztof Wojtas explains why welfare needs to be prioritised.

What sort of response have you had to the Rethink Fish campaign from both the public and the aquaculture certification providers?

The overall response from the public to this campaign has been positive and supportive – the public are engaged and recognise the need for stronger welfare standards for fish. People are now more aware of fish sentience and want products that come from better welfare conditions.

We are having ongoing open communications with all the aquaculture certification schemes and will continue to develop our relations with them, and assist them at all stages of improving their standards.

Can you give some sense of the scale of global aquaculture?

Around 53 million tonnes of fish were farmed worldwide in 2017, which equates to somewhere between 51 and 167 billion individuals. For comparison, globally over 60.7 billion land animals (including all chickens, cattle, ducks, goats, pigs, rabbits, sheep) are killed each year.

The interview continues here...