Farmed fish welfare: a global issue
February, 2024
Our research and on-farm experiences prove time and time again that improved fish welfare not only leads to happier, healthier fish but to a better product for consumers and greater financial returns for farmers.
Fish welfare represents one of those rare win-win situations where productivity gains not only improve the lives of the fish being farmed, but also of those rearing them.
But there’s no denying there’s still plenty of work to do.
In many countries, fish welfare isn’t even considered. That’s why we’re running projects and partnering with academic organisations across the globe – from Brazil to China – to help farmers better understand and implement practices that improve fish welfare. And we’ve now added Egypt to the list.
Murilo Quintiliano, FAI COO, showing the Tilapia Welfare App during Egypt farm visits.
An Egyptian fish farmer with Wasseem Emam from Ethical Seafood Research
Wasseem Emam, founder, director and lead researcher at Ethical Seafood Research explains: “Research carried out last year revealed tilapia welfare is completely unheard of in Egypt,” “This is particularly concerning given the scale at which these fish are farmed, Egypt being among the top five or six global producers of fin fish.”
On the back of this, FAI is now working with Wasseem and ESR by launching the Tilapia Welfare Project in Egypt. Using our Tilapia Welfare App, we’re providing bespoke online training for ESR to use to educate tilapia farmers on welfare issues. FAI’s COO, Murilo Quintiliano and Sara Barrento, FAI aquaculture project manager, are currently in the country visiting fish farms, promoting the case for tilapia welfare and identifying new ways to assist ESR’s work.
Wasseem and his team has already achieved their initial goal of providing a baseline map of production practices and identifying low points of welfare. Our new partnership with him is set to focus on implementing welfare improvements across the production cycle of the Egyptian tilapia farming sector.
Wasseem says:
“We expect to benefit from FAI’s expertise in this area and considerable knowledge from carrying out similar work in other countries. Brazil [where FAI has worked for a long time] is well-regarded within the global tilapia farming community and Egyptian tilapia farmers will be keen to learn from FAI’s experiences there as well as those in Thailand, China and other countries.”
Working with Wasseem and his team at ESR provides an exciting opportunity for FAI. The purpose of our international Tilapia Welfare Project is to positively affect the welfare of the largest possible number of fish. To achieve this, we need to be working across the world in countries where tilapia is produced at scale. Countries just like Egypt. It’s a good place for us to be carrying out our fish welfare work and reinforces the importance of having a global outlook.
ESR and Wasseem are the perfect partners for FAI in Egypt because they combine world- leading aquaculture research expertise, with a solid and legitimate network of practitioners across the Egyptian tilapia value chain. Together we can partner with producers, vets, academics and processors to create an even stronger tilapia industry with welfare at its centre.
We are very excited about this opportunity to identify and drive improvements across major areas of the tilapia production cycle that can yield benefits to farmer profits and fish wellbeing.