Aquaculture Welfare

Aquaculture Cleaner Fish Welfare: Lumpfish

The welfare challenges facing lumpfish used as biological sea lice control in salmon farming.

Key Facts

Lumpfish are deployed in salmon cages to eat sea lice, reducing lice treatment chemical use
Lumpfish welfare has been poorly studied relative to salmon, despite being deployed at scale
Lumpfish suffer injury from salmon aggression, equipment entanglement, and lice infestation themselves
Welfare standards for lumpfish are beginning to emerge but adoption remains inconsistent

Welfare Considerations

Cleaner fish welfare has been largely overlooked as focus centred on the salmon they serve. Yet lumpfish experience significant welfare compromise in salmon cages. Responsible aquaculture must extend welfare consideration to all species deployed in production systems.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture certification schemes that include cleaner fish welfare criteria
Advocate for lumpfish welfare research to be included in aquaculture research funding
Choose certified salmon from producers with published cleaner fish welfare protocols