Research has shown that it is impossible for almost all animal species to experience welfare in aquaculture [1]. Should we therefore focus on improving fish welfare in fisheries? It depends.
The fishing gear and methods vary greatly, depending first of all on the intended catch and, secondly, on the target species.
Reducing the duration of the catching process and the time to stunning and death
In principle, fish welfare in fishing is a contradiction in terms, because no fish will ever feel well when hooked or in netted. But we can at least reduce the animals‘ suffering as much as possible
(1) by reducing the duration of captivity, taking care however of hauling fishes caught in deep waters slowly to prevent barotrauma, and
(2) by stunning and killing each fish as soon as it is pulled on board.
The choice of fishing gear and methods is crucial to minimising animal suffering. Two international research projects [2] [3] are currently underway to determine the extent of suffering caused by different fishing gear and methods and the potential for reducing it.
Industrial fisheries are less eligible
Since industrial fishing aims at large catches, fishing gear and methods are used that are difficult to modify to significantly reduce animal suffering. Of course, they could install stunning and killing equipment on board, and some pioneers have already done so. But the time between the first fish caught and the last one stunned is simply too long when using longlines or large nets. The first industrial fishing method examined in the fair-fish database, the purse seine (assessed for 4 species [3]), has almost no potential for reducing animal suffering. The second method in the database, the gill net (assessed in 1 species [4]), is used by both industrial and small-scale fisheries, but in both cases the potential for improvement is almost zero.
Unfortunately, the fair-fish database has shifted its focus on a species-specific approach, while it was originally designed to focus on the assessment of gears and methods as the crucial factor in animal suffering. This explains the small number of gears and methods examined after the first three years of research.
The Carefish/catch consortium — of which fair-fish is one of five partners —conducts, among other things, smart field experiments to observe what happens to fishes and how they react to various fishing methods such as gillnets, traps, longlines and purse seines, and investigates various events such as stress, hypoxia, injuries and exhaustion in fish during the entire fishing process, from prospecting to storage or discarding
The Catch Welfare Platform, on the other hand, aims to gather scientific and practical knowledge in three main types of fisheries: small-scale, pelagic and demersal industrial fisheries. The ongoing accumulation of knowledge will hopefully lead to a clearer picture of the specific effects of different fishing gears and methods on animal suffering and show to what extent this can be reduced.
Small scale fisheries have more potential to reduce animal suffering
From a general theoretical approach, it is obvious that many gears and methods used in small-scale fisheries have the greatest potential for reducing animal suffering. The best candidates are hand line, pole and line, trolling, pole and line, short longlines, encircling gillnet, beach seine, and smart trap. The duration of captivity is tipycally short, the volume of catches modest, and there is a fair chance to stun and kill each fish when it comes on board. On the basis of these considerations, fair-fish once introduced the FishTest [6]. The ongoing research by fair-fish, Carefish/catch and the Catch Welfare Platform will provide scientific and practical evidence for this approach. It will be interesting to see which of the above top candidates can be confirmed and which other fishing gears and methods also prove to o have also a high potential for reducing animal suffering.
And how does that get fish on my plate?
You may think that the catch volume of small scale fisheries will by far not meet the current and still increasing the demand for fish and seafood. Well, independent fisheries biologists are urging for a global decrease in fishing pressure by 50% as long as fish stocks will have fully rebuilt, 4-5 years for pelagic species and longer periods for demersal species, according to the reproduction time of each species. With fully recovered fish stocks and an ongoing sustainable fisheries management, the global catch volume will rise by 60% from today, and the fishing effort per tonne will be much lower, freeing the world from the constraint of fishing in an industrial way.
Today, 54% of the global catch destined to feed humans is landed by small scale fisheries, 46% by industrial fleets. So, small scale fisheries could easily guarantee for the half of the global catch volume, and at the same time industrial fleets could be phased out.
PS: You may think that the catch volume of small scale fisheries will by far not meet the current and still increasing demand for fish and seafood. Well, independent fisheries biologists are urging for a global decrease in fishing pressure by 50% as long as fish stocks will have fully rebuilt, 4-5 years for pelagic species and longer periods for demersal species, according to the reproduction time of each species. With fully recovered fish stocks and an ongoing sustainable fisheries management, the global catch volume will rise by up to 60% from today, and the fishing effort per tonne will be much lower [7], freeing the world from the constraint of fishing in an industrial way.
Today, 54% of the global catch destined to feed humans is landed by small scale fisheries, 46% by industrial fleets [8]. So, small scale fisheries could easily guarantee for the ‚permitted‘ half of the global catch volume, and at the same time industrial fleets could be phased out.
Title image:
Artisanal fishermen in the Saloum estuary, Senegal (credit: Michael Hauri)
Sources:
[1] https://blog.think.fish/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/TK_Facts-5_EN.pdf
[2] https://carefish.net/catch
[3] https://catchwelfareplatform.com/
[4] https://fair-fish-database.net/db/species/engraulis-ringens/catch/welfarecheck/purse-seines/
[5] https://fair-fish-database.net/db/species/merluccius-merluccius/catch/welfarecheck/set-nets/
[7] https://blog.think.fish/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fish-facts_33_Edible-Fish.pdf
[8] https://www.facebook.com/groups/think.fish/posts/1162180792127631