New blog post!

The Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) is a marine fish found in the eastern side of the Atlantic ocean, besides Mediterranean and southern Black Sea waters. It is one of the most important commercial fish species in its natural habitat - more than 348,000 tons of this mackerel are caught annually. This mackerel is usually caught by purse seine and pelagic trawl fishing methods.

> If you would like to know the main fish welfare concerns related to the capture of this mackerel by purse seining, take a look at our new post about this at the blog ConsCIÊNCIA Animal here.

> If you are interested, you can also access its full WelfareCheck profile in the fair-fish database here.

(posted on Jan. 28, 2025)

New podcast episode!

Fair-fish database programme features short audio episodes from our Fish Talk podcast. These audios focus on species with profiles already published in the fair-fish database. We aim to provide insights into natural needs, behaviours and farming conditions or welfare hazards in fisheries for fishes and other aquatic animals - all in just a few minutes.

💡Yesterday, we launched our fourth episode focused on a fished species. It's about European hake (Merluccius merluccius) caught using set net fishing - a profile now available in the fair-fish database's catch branch.

> If you would like to listen to our new episode, go to our podcast page here.

(posted on Jan. 21, 2025)

Stocking density issues on fish farms

Unnatural densities and aggregations commonly found in farming conditions can increase the risk of infections, aggressive social encounters, and food competition for farmed aquatic animals.

Determining the appropriate density is not an easy task. Fish requirements are complex and highly dependent on the species and life-stage, as well as on farm characteristics and farming systems. 

💡 Therefore, this issue should be addressed with an integrative approach, considering welfare indicators at the individual, group, and environmental levels, but also the maintenance conditions, procedures, and specific training used on farms, always taking into account the particular species and its life stage. 

> Source: Finding the “golden stocking density”: A balance between fish welfare and farmers' perspectives (2022). Frontiers in Veterinary Science

(posted on Jan. 14, 2025)

New Paper Coming Out!

Our team members Caroline Marques Maia, Pablo Arechavala, María Cabrera-Álvarez, and João L. Saraiva have co-authored a paper now available online as a pre-proof in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science! This study investigated the preference responses of Nile tilapia for different structural enrichments, demonstrating that such fish preferences are a matter of time and frequency of visits. 

> The authors show that although Nile tilapia prefers to visit both a shelter and a complex structure similarly, this fish prefers to stay longer at the shelter. Thus, the number of visits or the time spent at a resource provides distinct preference responses.

> Access the already published pre-proof of this paper here.

(posted on Jan. 7, 2025)

Season's greetings!🎄

We, from the FishEthoGroup team, send you warm greetings for this Christmas and New Year. We hope that in 2025, we can increasingly contribute to improve the welfare of captive and wild-caught fishes by promoting research, helping to disseminate knowledge, giving consultancy, and training about fish welfare.

Happy holidays! See you in 2025 🙂

(posted on Dec. 20, 2024)

New podcast episodes at our fair-fish database programme!

Fair-fish database programme features short audio episodes from our Fish Talk podcast. These audios focus on species with profiles already published in the database of fair-fish. We aim to provide insights into natural needs, behaviours and farming conditions or welfare hazards in fisheries for aquatic species, all in just a few minutes.

Yesterday, we launched our third episode focused on a fished species. It's about Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) caught using purse seine fishing—a profile now available in the catch branch of the fair-fish database.

>> If you are interested, please go to our podcast page and listen to this new episode here.

(posted on Dec. 13, 2024)

Participation in the XLI Encontro Anual de Etologia in Brazil!

Disseminating science-based knowledge is one of our key activities to help improve the welfare of fishes and other aquatic animals in a practical way. Making presentations at scientific events is also an important part of our efforts to spread the word and share knowledge about fish behaviour and welfare.

💡As part of this mission, our team member Caroline Marques Maia participated in the XLI Encontro Anual de Etologia 2024 in Brazil. Carol gave an oral presentation via a recorded video on 'Disseminating Fish Behavior and Welfare: Fish Talk Podcast,' where she presented our podcast.

> Great opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge!

(posted on Dec. 3, 2024)

Participation in an APROMAR Workshop!

Making presentations at scientific or industry events is also an important part of our efforts to spread the word and share knowledge about fish behaviour and welfare.

💡As part of this mission, our team members Pablo Arechavala-Lopez and María J. Cabrera-Álvarez attended the workshop organized by REMA, the Aquaculture Experimentation and Monitoring Network of APROMAR. During the event, Pablo presented an update on the project: "Fish welfare guide on the Spanish aquaculture: Vol. 4: Rainbow trout."

> It was a successful opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge!

(posted on Nov. 26, 2024)

New podcast programme!

>> We have a new podcast programme! 

We are excited to announce the launch of Fish Five, our new interview podcast programme. The episodes explore fish behaviour and welfare through the perspectives of renowned experts, offering valuable insights in a concise format based on five thought-provoking questions. The first episode discusses emotional fever in fishes, featuring Professor Felicity Huntingford.

> One of our key activities is spreading knowledge about fish and other aquatic species to improve their welfare. We believe that scientific dissemination actions like this is crucial for achieving our goals.

> If you would like to listen to the first episode of this programme, go to our Spotify page here or podcast page at our website here.

(posted on Nov. 22, 2024)

Participation in the 2nd Edition of the Animal Health Symposium!

> Disseminating science-based knowledge is one of our key activities to help improve the welfare of farmed fishes and other aquatic animals in a practical way. Making presentations at scientific events is also an important part of our efforts to spread the word and share knowledge about fish behaviour and welfare. 

💡As part of this mission, our team member Joao L. Saraiva participated in the 2nd Edition of the Animal Health Symposium, organized by CIIMAR, last week in Porto, Portugal. João was a keynote speaker, talking about "Mind the fish mind: consciousness, sentience and implications for aquaculture".

> It was a successful opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge! 

(posted on Nov. 19, 2024)

New paper published!

Our team member Joao L. Saraiva co-authored a review paper recently published in Reviews in Aquaculture. This study examines several crucial water quality parameters in aquaculture, including water temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, inorganic nitrogen, as well as emerging concerns like microplastics and crude oil.

💡By synthesizing the behavioral changes caused by these specific water quality parameters, this review provides valuable insights for future research, emphasizing the importance of maintaining good water quality for both fish welfare and aquaculture productivity.

> We believe that solid scientific knowledge is fundamental to practically improving the welfare of fish and other farmed aquatic animals. Thus, high-quality publications in this field are the cornerstone of achieving this goal.

> If you are interested in this new review paper, you can access it here.

(posted on Nov. 12, 2024)

New post at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!

The Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) is a marine fish found in the Southeast Pacific, along the coasts of Peru and Chile. It is the most heavily targeted fish in the oceans - over 5 million tons of this fish are caught annually, accounting for 550 billion individuals. The most common method used to catch anchoveta is the purse seine.

> If you would like to know the main fish welfare concerns related to the capture of Peruvian anchoveta by purse seining, please take a look at our new post about this at the blog ConsCIÊNCIA Animal here.

> You can also access its WelfareCheck profile in the fair-fish database here.

(posted on Oct. 28, 2024)

New podcast episode in Portuguese!

The Fish Mind is a programme of our podcast Fish Talk that is focused on the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel other affective states, and display great cognitive abilities. The idea is to present this important information in an informal dialogue of a few minutes.

💡Last week we released our fourth episode about cognitive abilities of fishes in Portuguese too. Did you know that, like birds, fishes may build their own nests? And fish nests can serve several other functions besides spawning and parental care of their offspring. This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about nest building in fishes.

>> If you are interested, please go to our Spotify page here or to our podcast page here and listen to this episode in Portuguese

(posted on Oct. 21, 2024)

New paper published!

>> New paper published!

Our team members Caroline Marques Maia and  Joao L. Saraiva co-authored a review paper with Eliane Gonçalves de Freitas, which was recently published in the Frontiers in Veterinary Science journal. In this study, the authors investigated which of the welfare criteria composing the profiles of farmed aquatic species published in the fair-fish database are most relevant to their overall welfare.

They found that welfare criteria related to reproduction, slaughtering, and substrate needs have a high potential for improving welfare conditions in farms. Since criteria related to reproduction and migration patterns showed a high level of certainty according to the available literature, improving the reproduction of farmed aquatic species by considering their natural needs and behaviours could be an effective way to enhance their welfare.

They also found important knowledge gaps on welfare criteria related to aggression, home range, aggregation patterns, stress, and malformations in general.

> If you are interested, please access the full review paper here.

(posted on Oct. 15, 2024)

Fishes are able to build nests!

Science has increasingly demonstrated over the years that fishes are animals with incredible capacities and cognitive abilities. One good example is their ability of nest building.

💡 Did you know that, like birds, fishes may build their own nests? Fish nests can serve several other functions besides spawning and parental care of their offspring. Fish nests include amazing structures in various forms, made of several different materials.

If you are interested, check out our full infographic here for more details.

(posted on Oct. 13, 2024)