A groundbreaking new report Worse things happen at sea: the welfare of wild-caught fish has estimated that in the order of a trillion (1,000,000,000,000) or more wild fish are caught each year.
The report proposes practical ways to address this huge and neglected area of animal welfare concern by making commercial fishing much more humane.
A growing body of evidence has led many scientists to conclude that fish can feel pain and fear, yet whilst there is increasing concern for farmed fish to be killed and reared more humanely, the welfare needs of wild-caught fish have seldom been considered. Until now.
In order to address welfare concerns the report proposes:
- More humane methods of catching and killing fish.
- Retailers to market humanely-caught fish.
- Reduced levels of fishing.
- More effective measures to reduce illegal fishing and bycatch.
- Reduced levels of industrial fishing for fishmeal and oil.
- Governments to implement effective policies to reduce overfishing, industrial fishing and to develop more humane fishing practice and technology.
- Animal welfare groups to promote more humane methods of fishing.
- Conservation groups to include animal welfare arguments in their campaigns for sustainable fisheries management.
OneKind’s Campaigns Director, Ross Minett welcomed the report:
“This ground-breaking report casts light on one of the great, unspoken animal welfare issues of our time. The more we discover about the capacity of fish to have feelings and experience pain and distress, the more important it becomes to take positive action to address the welfare issues highlighted.
We urge all stakeholders to act on the recommendations of this report which proposes improvements to legislation, fishing practices and consumer behaviour that are reasonable, sustainable, practicable – and highly desirable.”
Launching the report, author Alison Mood said:
“As this estimate shows, wild fish are caught in huge numbers, and most of them die horribly. This is a major animal welfare issue. We need to end overfishing and develop more humane methods of capture and slaughter. People increasingly want better animal welfare in food production. Let’s give consumers a better choice for the fish that they buy.”
Julian Metcalfe at Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) added:
“In contrast to normal terrestrial farming or aquaculture little, if any, welfare regulation constrains how fish caught at sea are handled or killed. Frequently fish are gutted while still alive yet, it could be argued, no pig or sheep farmer would be allowed to treat pigs or sheep the way commercial fishermen are allowed to treat fish...
“But fish welfare is demonstrably moving up the public agenda and there are many questions that need to be considered. What level of pain or distress is it reasonable or acceptable to inflict on fish taken from the wild? How may we reduce or minimise the pain and distress caused? How can we balance any increased cost incurred by adopting more humane fishing methods against the benefits of improved fish welfare?
“This authoritative and objective report will help to support a rational debate by identifying where the main animal welfare issues exist and by providing a framework within which they might be addressed. Hopefully it may be the start of better things happening at sea.”
The full report (plus executive summary and a summary report) and a paper describing the estimate of fish numbers can all be found at www.fishcount.org.uk.