Fish Ethics
Dr Culum Brown
[email protected]
Why is fish ethics important?
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Commercial Fisheries
Aquaculture
Recreational Fishing
Research
Education
Pets
Biodiversity
Zebrafish
Stickleback
Guppy
Vertebrate Diversity
Amphibia
8.32%
Reptilia
12.30%
Osteichthyes
53.72%
Aves
16.46%
Mammalia
7.45%
Chondrichthyes
Agnatha
1.61%
0.14%
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How many fish in research?
% of all animals
Animal use in research 2006
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Aquatic
1
2
3
1 Observation & interference
2 Animal unconscious no recovery
3 Minor conscious intervention
4 Minor surgery with recovery
5 Major surgery with recovery
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5
6
7
8
9
Procedure
6 Minor physiological challenge
7 Major physiological challenge
8. Death as an endpoint
9. GM animals
Number of fish papers in behaviour
20%
% of behaviour research
18%
16%
14%
Be Ecol Soc
12%
An Behav
10%
Be Ecol
8%
Behav
6%
4%
2%
0%
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Title
Fish live in water!
71% of the Earth is
covered in water
Average depth 3790m
2
The final
frontier?
Bad Press
• Goldfish have a 3 second memory
3
Fish; the other white tofu?!
Flexible
Superior
Recent
Advanced
Increasing Intelligence
Higher
Old view
Lower
Inferior
Primitive
Fixed
Ancient
Scala naturae
“alchemical
complexifying
force”
Lamark
Aristotle
(384 BC – 322 BC)
4
Modern
view
360 mya
500 mya
No brain is structurally
simple
Even a bee brain has
ca1 million interconnected neurons!
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Do fish feel pain ?
Physical
&
Emotional
Do fish feel pain ?
Human
brain
?
Fish brain
Fish avoid negative stimuli
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Chemical and visual
communication
Normal behaviour
Fright response
Minnows responding to “shreckstoff” – “scary stuff”
von Frisch K. (1938) Die Naturwissenschaften 37, 601–606
Fish are not Rats
Hot fish, cold fish: how much food?
-2 C
Ice fish
Desert Goby
+ 40 C
7
Season variation in Temp
Rations in
Degree days
Water quality
Companions
Guppies do very well in high densities
Single housing -> stress
Silver perch will kill other companions
Group housing -> stress
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General housing
Catfish wallowing in mud!
Charr in cool, clear running water
Substrate
Behavioural requirements
Male stickleback building a nest
Salmon migrating to home rivers
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Disease
Key welfare indicators
• Changes in colour
• Changes in ventilation rate
• Changes in swimming and other behaviour
patterns
• Reduced food intake
• Slow growth
• Loss of condition
• Morphological abnormalities
• Injury
• Disease
• Reduced reproduction
Further Reading
• Huntingford et al. (2006) Current understanding
on fish welfare: a broad overview. Journal of
Fish Biology 68, 332-372
• Chandroo et al. (2004) An evaluation of current
perspectives on consciousness and pain in
fishes. Fish & Fisheries 5, 281-295.
• http://www.fsbi.org.uk/docs/brief-welfare-refs.pdf
• http://www.fishwelfare.net
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