Vögel, Säugetiere und Insekten bilden Gesellschaften, «ZIvilisationen». Aber Einzelgänger wie Tintenfische?
Wie viele meiner Kollegen glaubte ich, dass Tintenfische ganz solitär leben, abgesehen von der Paarung gegen Ende ihres kurzen Lebens, das bis zu drei Jahre dauert. Von ihrem ersten Lebenstag an sind sie völlig auf sich allein gestellt. Ich habe mich immer gefragt, wie sie ohne soziale Interaktionen ein so hohes Mass an Intelligenz erreichen können.
Voranzeige: Der Naturfilmer Hannes Jaenicke berichtet in seiner Sendung auf ZDF am 16. September 2025 über die Bedrohung der Tintenfische (Oktopoden) und über illegale Fangmethoden. «Hannes Jaenicke: Im Einsatz für den Oktopus» 16. ZDF, 16.09.2025 um 22:15 Uhr (ab 10.09.2025 auch in der ZDF-Mediathek)
When Humpback whales migrate along the Australian coast in their thousands, dolphins join the shoals of their large relatives. This is not an isolated case. In a recent study [1], two researchers from Griffith University in Australia searched social media and found 199 usable reports of encounters between whales and dolphins from 17 countries over a two-decade period, mainly Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). In most cases, the interactions can be interpreted as communal feeding, play, and harassment. The researchers conclude that interactions between these species are by no means as rare as previously thought.
#1: Your ear, like the ears of all mammals, has its origin in the gills of ancient fishes More…
#2: Ancient molluscs were more complex and adaptable than previously assumed, as a study of discovered fossils shows. More…
#3: You may think that your skeleton is rigid, but the cells in your bones are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt. You have inherited this fascinating ability from a very old fish, the Astraspis, which lived 460 million years ago. More…
#4: The Bigmouth buffalo, a carp-like species that lives in North American lakes, can grow to be over 100 cm long and 100 years old. Studies show that ageing does not affect the fitness of this species. However, researchers are also wondering why they hardly find any younger specimens and fear that the species could become extinct. More…
#5: Despite all conservation efforts, shark populations in the Mediterranean are still declining. More…
#6: Microplastics in the sea are a problem that you touch with your tongue and intestines when you eat seafood, a new study shows. More…
Graph by the author, based on the fair-fish database
Resources are, as always, limited. Should we then invest in improving some details in the lives of over 500 farmed aquatic animal species, most of which are known not being able to experience welfare in captivity anyway? Or should we rather focus on the few species that possibly may thrive under improved farming conditions?
Critical notes on a paper published by the fair-fish database team
The science of fish welfare must be careful to not lead to greenwashing. Improving farming conditions for species with very low welfare potential, such as the overwhelming majority of species, may alleviate some of the discomfort of farmed fishes, but cannot make them experience welfare.
The graph shows the few species with a relatively high overall potential of experiencing welfare under best possible farming conditions — all the other out of about 90 species assessed so far show an overall potential of only 2 or lower; most of them do not even exceed potential score 0. Is it wise to focus research and development on species such as salmon, trout, sebream, seabass, etc., that will most probably not feel really well even under best conditions?
A study [1] published in 2022 concludes that ’still little is known about some key parameters related to the five welfare dimensions, as they might be applied to penaeid shrimp‘ — in stark contrast to the knowledge on nutritional needs, stress physiology, immunology and disease control in shrimp farming.
According to the authors, shrimp aquaculture still faces challenges like developing best practices, staff training, monitoring of aquatic environment and animal behaviour, and a welfare assessment throughout the entire life circle.
A similar study [2] published in 2023 argues that welfare of shrimps ‚cannot be communicated to the consumer in a scientifically sound manner‘. The behaviour of decapod crustaceans suggests that they perceive pain perception, the authors admit, ‚but distress has rarely been evaluated under routine aquaculture conditions and markers for chronic stress detection need to be identified‘. Therefore, ‚a comprehensive assessment of chronic stress should be carried out‘ across all life stages. ‚We need evaluation criteria for animal welfare in crustacean farming‘, as the lead author explains in an interview [3] where he states that in addition to identifying stress parameters, the growing potential of automated behavioural assessment should be exploited.
Can research improve shrimp welfare?
Will research of the kind solve the problem of lack of welfare for shrimps? Science itself provides doubt. A look at the findings on the ethology and the welfare of Pacific whiteleg shrimps (Litopenaeus vannamei [4]) and Giant tiger prawns (Penaeus monodon [5]) shows that most of the essential needs of these species cannot be met in aquaculture, not even when a farmer does best as he can. Commercial farming will never be able to provide the horizontal and vertical dimensions needed to provide the individuals with the space and substrate they require in their natural habitat, consequently, aggression and stress are an issue, and suffering at the time of slaughter is yet unresolved. So, why farm shrimps of all aquatic animals?
There is a second good reason to ask: why shrimps? Let’s look at the most farmed crustacean species, L. vannamei, which is one of the species with the highest number of animals killed per year for human food [6]: In 2021, harvest was 6’324’549 tonnes of farmed and 24’043 tonnes of wild catch |7], which transforms in estimates of animals killed per year from over 100 billion to over 1200 billion animals, depending on the market size ranging from 5 to 57 grams per individual [8].
Only the Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) is affected in similar numbers, estimated between 139 and 555 billion animals killed per year [9]. However, there is a huge difference between the human impact on the two species: Anchovies are caught in the wild, i. e. they lived under their natural conditions, whereas shrimps are mainly farmed. In the case of L. vannamei only 4 percent of the live weight lifted annually are wild catch. This disproportion is far form being self-evident; farming of L. vannamei (and of shrimps in general) is a very recent phenomenon, as shown in the graph.
To put it bluntly:
Do we really need research to improve details in the life of farmed shrimps when we know that no farming system will ever be able to cope with their natural needs?
And do we really need to eat very small animals, knowing that they have to be killed in enormous numbers to fill our plate?
What can be done?
You cannot directly influence the fact that many persons are craving for shrimps
Instead, you could reconsider your own consumer behaviour.
And you could bring up the issue when the opportunity arises and provide information of this kind.
Sure, there are some shrimps farmers who really try hard to do the best, also for the animals, but they are few and will not be able to cover the high and ever growing demand for shrimps. Be happy when you found such a farmer and enjoy the delicatesse with due containment, maybe once a year.
PS: Should you be a shrimp farmer or a shrimp vendor and be convinced that you do verifiably better, please let us know, either by leaving your comment here or by writing a post in our group. think.fish is a place where more than just one side of the coin can be told. (Please check our rules first.)
Title picture: Pacfic whiteleg shrimps Litopenaeus vannamei (Drawing by Kasia Jackowska)
[6] Maybe with the exception of farmed insects, but then, insects are sentient as well, see e.g: Claudio Carere, Jennifer Mather (Eds., 2019): The Welfare of Invertebrate Animals
