Aquaculture Cleaner Fish Welfare: Lumpfish and Wrasse

Cleaner fish - lumpfish and wrasse - are widely used in salmon aquaculture to control sea lice, but their welfare needs are poorly understood and often neglected.

Key Facts

Millions of lumpfish and wrasse are deployed annually in Norwegian and Scottish salmon cages
Cleaner fish have complex habitat needs including refuges, structure, and appropriate temperatures
Mortality rates for cleaner fish can exceed 50% during deployment in salmon cages
Wrasse are wild-caught from coastal waters, raising questions about wild population impacts
Lumpfish are produced in hatcheries but standards for their welfare during rearing are poorly developed
Welfare regulations in most countries focus on salmon and largely ignore cleaner fish species

Welfare Considerations

The welfare of cleaner fish is a significant blind spot in aquaculture regulation. These fish are sentient animals whose capacity for suffering is well-established, yet they are deployed and killed at massive scale with little welfare consideration. High mortality rates indicate that the conditions in salmon cages are inadequate for cleaner fish. They require appropriate food, shelter, and conspecific company, conditions rarely provided. The salmon industry's reliance on cleaner fish as a biological pest control method creates a welfare problem requiring urgent attention.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture welfare standards that explicitly include cleaner fish welfare requirements
Ask salmon producers about their cleaner fish welfare policies
Support research into non-biological sea lice control methods that reduce cleaner fish use
Choose salmon certified by schemes that address cleaner fish welfare
Advocate for regulatory inclusion of cleaner fish in aquaculture welfare legislation