A million salmons killed due to a jellyfish attack
In a SalMar farming site in Norway, 1.2 million young salmons had to be killed “for fish welfare reasons” after string jellyfishes (Apolemia uvaria) had invaded the net cages and began to damage or kill the fishes. More about it…
The Mackerel war continues
After the Scottish fishermen, it’s now up to their Irish colleagues to pretend that Iceland, Faroese and Norway are catching too high share after mackerel stock in the north east Atlantic. It’s kind of a dead end debate between the ones who tried to protect their long ago acquired rights and the ones who profit from the fact that meanwhile the mackerels are swimming higher up north, due to global warming. More about it… Background information (in German)
Thailand plans to withdraw some of its fisheries reforms
The Thai fisheries industry has long been accused for several harmful practices, like a illegal fishing (IUU), violation of the labour rights, lack in quality, etc. Negative press and phase-out of big retailers in the west urged the Thai government to implement reforms some years ago. The government’s planed roll-back is driven by complaints of fishermen that strict IUU rules were threatening their livelihoods. A broad coalition of international and Thai NGOs urge the government to stick to the reforms. More about it…
As a rule of thumb, the more a fishery respects the environment, the more it reduces the suffering of the animals concerned, and vice versa. However, for one of the most sustainable fishing methods, this rule often does not apply yet: fishing by pole and line. Its impact on non-target species and on the aquatic environment is generally as low as neglectable, and its energy demand per ton of catch is much lower than in most other commercial fishing methods. But…
They are all nice people with nice ideas how to feed the world and save the planet and their own business. No greedy capitalists, they believe to be part of the solution. Persons whom you might like to meet to learn more about their mindset.But…
A Seawater Cube unit and its founders (photo: Seawater Cube)
The German based ‚Seawater Cubes‘ developed a tiny recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) unit consisting of four shipping containers, able to produce nearly 8 tonnes of fish per year. ‚We thought about how to do RAS better and developed the idea of a decentralised, small-scale approach for on-land fish farming and built a prototype of the idea,‘ the CEO says. ‚We’ve achieved a 98 percent survival rate because of the water quality.‘ [2] Fine so—but are the fishes in these narrow tanks eager to survive?
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Good for the fishes?
Seawater Cubes claims that their system helps to keep the stocking density considerably below industry standards, e.g. for Sea bream ’30 percent below the 100 kilo per cubic metres that some scientific papers suggest is possible.‘ Really? This is way beyond usual standards, let alone the species’ natural aggregation habits [3] and its spatial needs for moving horizontally and vertically [4]. At least two of the three founders of Seawater Cubes should know better, having worked for the big RAS plant in Völklingen (Saarland) where Sea breams swim in a huge pool.
Sea breams near Malta (photo: Snorkelling Malta/Wikimedia).
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Good for the farmers?
A second question arises: Who is this system designed for? Seawater Cubes claims that its automated unit can be operated as a business alongside, ‚perfect for farmers who are looking to diversify. The daily operation requires about eight hours a week.‘
C’mon, we’ve been there already, farmers in Switzerland, for example, were promised the moon with RAS modules installed in barns that were no longer in use, a flop. The investment for a Seawater Cube system is about 300,000 euros, an amount that can hardly be amortised by a part-time job.
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What can I do as a consumer?
Should I hope that this business idea fails before many farmers have to realise their own failure? Or at least for the sake of millions of innocent fishes?
I could stop from thinking that I need fish once or twice a week to have a healthy live.
Die Tierschutzkommission der britischen Regierung verlangt einen besseren gesetzlichen Schutz von Fischen während des Schlachtprozesses, dem jährlich 77 Millionen Fische in der Aquakultur zugeführt werden, vor allem Lachse in schottischen Zuchten. Nur Hühner müssen in Grossbritannien in noch grössere Zahl dran glauben.
In the post ‚Is there animal welfare for shrimps?‘ of 05.08.2023 [1] I mentioned that there are a few ’shrimp farmers who really try hard to do the best, also for the animals‘. I have known the company SwissShrimp.ch since its beginnings; if farming shrimps at all, then like this, I have already been quoted as saying.
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.
In his recent newsletter [1], Lewis Bollard, farm animal welfare programme officer at Open Philanthropy, makes a very interesting point. Starting with the question of why humans love some animals while disregarding or mistreating others, Lewis cites several studies that show an astonishingly small difference in the importance people place on the welfare of farm or companion animals — in world regions as diverse as North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Europe. In countries such as Sudan or Bangladesh, people even place slightly more importance on the welfare of farm animals.
Zebrafish (Drawing: F. Hamliton, 1822 / Wikimedia Commons)
To survive, a living being must be able to adapt to its environment. A clever experiment with zebrafishes shows that a comfortable life costs adaptability.
Zebrafisch (Zeichnung: F. Hamilton, 1822 / Wikimedia Commons)
Um zu überleben, muss sich ein Lebewesen an seine Umwelt anpassen können. Ein kluges Experiment mit Zebrafischen zeigt: Ein bequemes Leben kostet Anpassungsfähigkeit.
Ein Wald des Riesenkelp. Diese Tangart kann unter idealen Bedingungen bis zu einem halben Meter pro Tag wachsen. (Foto: Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA / Wikimedia Commons)
Wie komplex das Nahrungsnetz im Meer geknüpft ist, zeigt das Wechselspiel zwischen Kelp und Seeigeln, Seesternen und Seeottern.
