A Brief Look into the Origins of Fish Welfare Science

Abstract

Every year, humans kill or injure trillions of fishes in fisheries, recreational fishing, aquaculture, and through the destruction or contamination of their habitats. However, until recently fish welfare has been paid little attention. The recent, at least partial, inclusion of fish within the moral circle can be seen as a natural/logical consequence of the increased attention paid to animal welfare in general, and in particular to the welfare of farmed fish in the rapidly growing intensive fish farming industry. The concern for fish welfare was first raised by animal protection groups in the early 1990s, and by the end of that decade, fish welfare had started to receive attention from scientists, food authorities, politicians, and the aquaculture industry. After the turn of the millennium, fish welfare blossomed into a research topic and became a prioritized and integrated part of animal welfare legislation in Europe. This chapter tells the story about the rise of animal welfare as a topic of concern, and especially fish welfare science, including the controversy concerning pain and consciousness in fish.

Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.

Albert Schweitzer, Reverence for Life