Aquaculture Wrasse Welfare as Cleaner Fish

Wrasse and lumpfish used as cleaner fish in salmon farming to control sea lice are farmed in large numbers but receive minimal welfare consideration despite being sentient animals with their own behavioral needs.

Key Facts

An estimated 30 to 60 million wrasse and lumpfish are produced annually for use in salmon farms
Cleaner fish mortality rates in salmon farms can reach 50 to 80 percent within a production cycle
Wrasse are territorial reef fish whose natural behaviors are impossible to express in salmon farm net pens
Lumpfish have complex social behaviors and individual personalities documented in research
No specific welfare standards for cleaner fish exist in most salmon farming regulations
Cleaner fish are often not given adequate shelter from salmon aggression in net pen environments
Research into the welfare needs of cleaner fish is substantially underfunded compared to salmon welfare research

Welfare Considerations

Wrasse and lumpfish used as biological lice control in salmon farming occupy an anomalous position — they are used to improve salmon welfare while having almost no welfare consideration applied to themselves. The mortality rates of cleaner fish in operational farms are extraordinarily high, suggesting chronic stress, poor nutrition, predation by salmon, and disease. Wrasse introduced to salmon net pens cannot hide from salmon aggression in the way reef-dwelling wild wrasse escape predators. Lumpfish show individual recognition and social complexity in research settings that is entirely incompatible with their conditions in commercial farms. The moral inconsistency of using sentient animals as welfare tools while disregarding their own welfare deserves urgent regulatory attention.

What You Can Do

Advocate for cleaner fish to be explicitly covered in salmon farm welfare standards and regulations
Support ASC certification requirements that include cleaner fish welfare as a scored criterion
Reduce or substitute Atlantic salmon consumption with species farmed without cleaner fish dependence
Support research into alternative lice control methods that do not require biological control fish
Ask salmon supply chains whether their certification covers the welfare of cleaner fish used on farms