Education: Are you interested in Fish Welfare? You now have the opportunity to participate in a webinar where Ása Johannesen, researcher at Fiskaaling Ltd., will be presenting on the subject – and why it matters.
Fish have historically not been considered animals that we should care about. Only recently has the scientific community reached some sort of consensus on whether fish are even able to suffer from pain. Assuming that fish can not suffer leads people to treat them as less important and less worthy of empathy than other animals.
However, animal welfare legislation in many countries includes fish under the umbrella of vertebrates, limiting what scientists are able to do and setting minimum care requirements for people who keep fish.
Perhaps hypocritically and at least counterintuitively, fish welfare in commercial fisheries is never brought up.
Sometimes, there is a debate on the ethics of angling and survival studies of released fish are carried out to assess the impact of catching fish and releasing them. However, angling is only a small way in which humans affect fish welfare.
We also farm fish and we keep them as pets. Assuming that fish welfare does matter, what should we do? This webinar will cover some of the things to take into consideration in terms of fish welfare. This will cover “ethical eating”, keeping pet fish, and interacting with fish in nature.
The learning objectives of the webinar include:
- A history of animal welfare ethics, specifically as it pertains to fish.
- The biological basis for caring about fish welfare.
- Practical considerations for how to cause least harm to fish.
The webinar starts on Thursday, 13 February 2020. To participate, you will need to register on https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/event-3494967.
Here, there you will find all relevant information about time and cost.
If you are prevented from following the webinar live, you will be able to watch it later, as you will automatically receive a recording.
Ása Johannesen is a fish welfare scientist working with welfare in farmed fish at Fiskaaling. She has a PhD in behavioural ecology and has previously trained in animal behaviour and welfare including a BSc with a focus on domestic and captive animals. Having worked for several years with lumpfish, a species that is new to aquaculture, Ása is currently focusing on new challenges for salmon in traditional aquaculture.
