Aquaculture

Animal Welfare in Aquaculture Feed Production

Aquaculture depends on wild-caught fishmeal and fish oil — creating a welfare chain from wild fish harvest through farmed fish feeding that multiplies the welfare footprint of aquaculture products.

Key Facts

Producing 1 kg of farmed salmon requires approximately 1-2 kg of wild-caught fish in feed
Global fishmeal production uses approximately 20 million tonnes of wild fish annually
Small schooling fish like anchovies, sardines, and capelin are the primary reduction fishery targets
Welfare of reduction fishery fish is essentially unmonitored and unregulated
Alternative feeds including soy, insect meal, and algae are reducing wild fish dependency

Welfare Considerations

The welfare footprint of aquaculture extends well beyond the farmed fish to the billions of wild fish caught to feed them. Small pelagic fish caught in reduction fisheries are harvested in enormous volumes — purse-seine nets capturing hundreds of thousands of individuals simultaneously, with drowning, crushing, and asphyxiation killing methods. Transitioning to non-fish-based aquaculture feed would dramatically reduce this upstream welfare burden.

What You Can Do

Choose aquaculture products from species with low fishmeal dependency (mussels, oysters, tilapia)
Support brands committing to reduced wild fish inclusion in aquaculture feeds
Advocate for welfare considerations in reduction fishery management
Follow research on alternative protein sources replacing wild fish in aquaculture feed
Reduce farmed salmon consumption as it has among the highest fishmeal welfare footprints