Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), a UK-based animal welfare non-profit, urges governments to adopt new welfare legislation after a recent study highlighted the need to protect drastically growing farmed fish populations.
The new Cambridge scientific study published on February 6, found that the number of farmed fish had more than doubled since 2007 with global farmed finfish production increasing from 9 to 56 million tonnes between 1990 and 2019.
The study also showed that the number of farmed fish slaughtered globally had risen dramatically over the past 12 years – from 61 billion fish in 2007 to 124 billion in 2019.
CIWF said: “The total number of fish farmed is likely to be much higher because many die during rearing. Inhumane slaughter practices cause immense suffering for farmed fish. Yet the study highlights that most farmed fish (70-72%) have no legal protection at all and less than 1% have any species-specific legal protection at slaughter, meaning most suffer long and agonising deaths.”
Phil Brooke, Compassion in World Farming’s research and education manager, who co-authored the report with lead author, Alison Mood, of Fishcount, said: “This new study reveals a massive increase in the number of farmed fish slaughtered over a 30-year period and highlights the urgent need for legislation to protect their welfare.
“It shows that around 124 billion individual fish are now slaughtered each year. These are sentient creatures who not only feel pain and experience fear, but also experience a range of emotions. There are now more farmed fishes than farmed birds and mammals yet most farmed fish have no species-specific legal protection at all and this must be addressed.”
The organisation said fish welfare legislation was urgently needed across the world to ensure all fish have lives worth living and experience a humane death.
The figures in the report show that farmed fish – most of which are reared and slaughtered in Asia – are now likely to outnumber the 80 billion farmed birds and mammals killed globally each year for food.
The study’s lead author, Mood runs FishCount – a website dedicated to increasing understanding of fish sentience and raising awareness of the welfare issues in fish farming and commercial fisheries.
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