News
New podcast episode!
Fair-fish database programme features short audio episodes from our Fish Talk podcast. These audios focus on fish species with profiles already in the fair-fish database. We aim to provide insights into natural needs, behaviors, farming conditions, and welfare hazards of fishes, as well as other aquatic animals, all in just a few minutes.
We recently launched a new type of episode. It's our first one on a fished species, specifically the Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) caught using purse seine fishing—a profile now available in the fair-fish database's catch branch.
>> If you are interested, please go to our podcast page and listen to this new episode of the fair-fish database programme here.
(posted on July 23, 2024)
Environmental enrichment
> Facing a poor environment under farming conditions with insufficient positive estimulation is a very common situation for farmed fishes.
Environmental enrichment is a technique that helps create positive stimuli, encouraging fish interaction, enhancing their natural behaviors, and preventing or, at least, minimizing abnormal behaviors. Structural (physical), dietary, sensory, social, or cognitive enrichments are different strategies that can bring significant benefits with simple changes.
For fishes, the most commonly used strategy so far is physical or structural enrichments, which involves adding objects or structures to increase the complexity of their environment.
> If you are interested, please take a look at our papers about the use of environmental enrichment for fishes here.
(posted on July 16, 2024)
New post at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!
Arapaima (Arapaima gigas) is considered one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. Brazil is the world's largest producer of this fish species. Although Arapaima has some characteristics considered advantageous for aquaculture, it ends up experiencing a lot of stress due to common farming procedures.
>> If you would like to know more about Arapaima, take a look at our new post about this species at blog ConsCIÊNCIA Animal here.
>> If you are interested, you can also access its overview page here and its WelfareCheck profile here, in the fair-fish database.
(posted on July 9, 2024)
New paper published!
We believe that solid scientific knowledge is fundamental to improve the welfare of fishes and other farmed aquatic animals in a practical way. Thus, the publication of good quality papers in this field is the main basis for this.
Recently, our team members Caroline Marques Maia and Joao L. Saraiva co-authored a paper with Jenny Volstorf and Eliane Gonçalves de Freitas titled "Surveying the Welfare of Farmed Fish Species on a Global Scale Through the Fair-Fish Database." This review paper was published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
> The authors show that the current welfare state is poor for the majority of farmed aquatic species, but there is considerable potential for improvement, although many species are very unlikely to achieve good welfare. They also highlight important knowledge gaps of several farmed species.
> If you would like to take a look at this review paper, access it here.
(posted on June 28, 2024)
New podcast episodes at our fair-fish database programme!
Fair-fish database programme is a series of very short audios of our Fish Talk podcast. The audios are focused on fish species with profiles already published in the database of fair-fish. The idea is to give information about natural needs, behaviours and farming conditions of fishes and other aquatic farmed animals; all this in less than 3 min.
> Yesterday we released new episodes of this programme. This time they are focused on Reticulated knifefish (Papyrocranus afer), Tinfoil barb (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii) and Arapaima (Arapaima gigas).
> If you are interested, please go to our podcast page here and listen to the new episodes (series 18).
(posted on June 26, 2024)
New media article about our work!
We were interviewed about our investigation into the positive effects of environmental enrichment on the stress response of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Our study evaluated the heartbeats of this species using small logger devices surgically implanted in the fishes.
These devices allowed us to monitor their heartbeats during common farming procedures such as tank cleaning, feeding, and fish removal for vaccination. We found that fish in an enriched environment experienced less stress during these procedures.
>> If you are interested, please access the full article in Portuguese with our interview here.
(posted on June 24, 2024)
New Research Topic!
We believe that solid scientific knowledge is fundamental to improve the welfare of fishes and other farmed aquatic animals in a practical way. Thus, the publication of good quality papers that help filling the knowledge gaps on the welfare of such animals is the main basis for this.
In this line, our team member Caroline Marques Maia is collaborating as an editor for the Research Topic ‘Proposing and improving science led operational welfare indicators for fish farming’ in the Frontiers in Veterinary Science journal.
>> This Research Topic is open for submissions. If you are interested, access it here.
(posted on June 8, 2024)
New post about fish abilities at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!
Although it is common that people think fishes do not have great cognitive abilities, these aquatic animals are capable of doing amazing things.For instance, it’s not new to science that, just like birds, fishes are also capable of nest building. Moreover, there is scientific evidence indicating that nests can be used for several other functions besides spawning and parental care of offspring.
In the new post of 'The fish mind' section at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog, we explored this fish ability. 'The fish mind' is a FishEthoGroup section that talks about the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel positive affective states, and express amazing cognitive abilities, bringing some important scientific evidence about these themes.
> If you are interested, access the full post here.
> This post and 'The fish mind' section of the FishEthoGroup at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog is part of a post-doc project in collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.
(posted on June 3, 2024)
New podcast episode about fish abilities
One of our activities is developing scientific dissemination actions to share knowledge related to the welfare of fishes and other aquatic species. As part of this, 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.
We released our third episode about cognitive abilities of fishes in portuguese. Did you know that, just like humans, fishes may be able to recognize themselves? Self-recognition is a skill that until recently had only been shown in mammals. But now, it's been demonstrated in a fish species! This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about self recognition in fishes.
>> The Fish Mind programme results from a collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.
>> If you would like to listen to this episode, go to our Spotify page here or to our podcast page here.
(posted on May 27, 2024)
New paper published!
Recently, our team members Ana Rita Oliveira, María J. Cabrera-Álvarez, João L. Saraiva and Pablo Arechavala-Lopez co-authored the paper titled 'Structural enrichment promotes natural behaviour and welfare of captive gilthead seabream broodstock', which was published in the Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal.
The authors monitored behaviors and stress markers of gilthead seabream broodstock over several months in conditions with structural enrichment, compared to a standard rearing environment. They found that the enrichment evoked positive changes in spatial distribution, swimming activity, social interactions and feeding behaviour, with no detrimental effects on any performance indicator.
>> If you would like to access this new paper, click here.
(posted on May 21, 2024)
Seminars at the University of Padua about fish behaviour and welfare!
Disseminating scientifically-based knowledge is one of our key activities aimed at improving the welfare of farmed fishes and other aquatic animals in a practical manner. Thus, making presentations plays a crucial role in spreading the word and sharing insights into fish behavior and welfare.
Our team member, Joao L. Saraiva, will be delivering seminars at the Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD) / University of Padua, as part of the SENTINEL project (animalS and ENvironmenT: towards a sustaINablE Life). Great opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge.
> The seminars will be streamed online on May 16th and 17th. If you are interested, you can access them clicking here.
(posted on May 13, 2024)
New post about fish abilities at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!
Although it is common that people think fishes do not have great cognitive abilities, these aquatic animals are capable of doing amazing things. For instance, fishes may be able to recognize themselves, an ability once deemed exclusive to humans. Science has now demonstrated that fishes also have this ability.
In the new post of 'The fish mind' section at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog, we explored this fish ability. 'The fish mind' is a FishEthoGroup section that talks about the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel positive affective states, and express amazing cognitive abilities, bringing some important scientific evidence about these themes.
> If you would like to access this new post, click here.
> This post and "The fish mind' section of the FishEthoGroup at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog is part of a post-doc project in collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, (Brazil).
(posted on April 22, 2024)
New podcast episode about fish abilities!
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.
We released our third episode about cognitive abilities of fishes. Did you know that, just like humans, fishes may be able to recognize themselves? Self-recognition is a skill that until recently had only been shown in mammals. But now, it's been demonstrated in a fish species! This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about self recognition in fishes.
> The Fish Mind programme results from a collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.
> If you would like to listen to this episode, go to our Spotify page here or to our podcast page here.
(posted on April 15, 2024)
Invitation to make a presentation at the APROMAR meeting
The first face-to-face meeting of APROMAR (Spanish Aquaculture Association) in 2024 was on March 12th, in Madrid - Spain. This event discussed APROMAR's projects since 2015, with emphasis on 2023. Pablo was invited to present some projects that APROMAR is financing.
Pablo talked about the study and management of predator interactions with sea bream and sea bass grow-out facilities; and was also in charge of presenting the Aquaculture Sea Bream and Sea Bass Welfare Guides.
>> This news is already in the media. If you are interested, access it here.
(posted on March 25, 2024)
New podcast episode about fish abilities in Portuguese!
One of our activities is developing scientific dissemination actions to share knowledge related to the welfare of fishes and other aquatic species. As part of this, 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.
We released our second episode about cognitive abilities of fishes in portuguese. Did you know that fishes are able to use things to get food? Using tools is a well-known ability in mammals and birds, but science has demonstrated that fishes are also able to do that! This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about tool use in fishes.
>> The Fish Mind programme results from a collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.
>> If you would like to listen to this episode, please go to our Spotify page here or to our Fish talk page here.
(posted on March 18, 2024)
