Table Of ContentAnimal Welfare
Tore S. Kristiansen
Anders Fernö
Michail A. Pavlidis
Hans van de Vis Editors
The Welfare
of Fish
Animal Welfare
Volume 20
SeriesEditor
ClivePhillips
SchoolofVeterinaryScience
UniversityofQueensland
Gatton,QLD
Australia
AdvisoryEditors
MariekeCassiaGartner
Atlanta,GA,USA
KarenF.Mancera
MexicoCity,Mexico
TheAnimalWelfareserieshasbeendesignedtohelpcontributetowardsacultureof
respect for animals and their welfare by producing academic texts addressing how
besttoprovideforthewelfareoftheanimalspeciesthataremanagedandcaredfor
byhumans.Booksintheseriesdonotprovideadetailedblue-printforthemanage-
mentofeachspecies,buttheydodescribeanddiscussthemajorwelfareconcerns,
often inrelation tothewildprogenitorsofthemanagedanimals. Welfare hasbeen
considered in relation to animals’ needs, concentrating on nutrition, behaviour,
reproduction and the physical and social environment. Economic effects of animal
welfare provision were also considered where relevant, as were key areas where
furtherresearchisrequired.
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/5675
(cid:129) (cid:129)
Tore S. Kristiansen Anders Fernö
(cid:129)
Michail A. Pavlidis Hans van de Vis
Editors
The Welfare of Fish
Co-ordinating Editor: Marieke Cassia Gartner
Editors
ToreS.Kristiansen AndersFernö
InstituteofMarineResearch DepartmentofBiology
Bergen,Norway UniversityofBergen
Bergen,Norway
MichailA.Pavlidis HansvandeVis
DepartmentofBiology IMARES
UniversityofCrete WageningenUniversity&ResearchCentre
Heraklion,Greece Yerseke,TheNetherlands
ISSN1572-7408
AnimalWelfare
ISBN978-3-030-41674-4 ISBN978-3-030-41675-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41675-1
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020
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Animal Welfare Series Preface
Animal welfare isattractingincreasing interest worldwide, especially indeveloped
countries where the knowledge and resources are available to, at least potentially,
provide better management systems for farm animals, as well as companion, zoo,
laboratory, and performance animals. The key requirements for adequate food,
water,asuitableenvironment,companionship,andhealthareimportantforanimals
keptforallofthesepurposes.
TherehasbeenincreasedattentiongiventoanimalwelfareintheWestinrecent
years.Thisderiveslargelyfromthefactthattherelentlesspursuitoffinancialreward
and efficiency, to satisfy market demands, has led to the development of intensive
animal management systems that challenge the conscience of many consumers in
this part of the world, particularly in the farm and laboratory animal sectors.
Livestock are the world’s biggest land users, and the farmed animal population is
increasingrapidlytomeettheneedsofanexpandinghumanpopulation.Thisresults
in a tendency to allocate fewer resources to each animal and to value individual
animalsless,forexampleinthecaseoffarmedpoultrywhereflocksofovertwenty
thousand birds are not uncommon. In these circumstances, the importance of each
individual’swelfareisdiminished.
In developing countries, human survival is still a daily uncertainty, so that
provision for animal welfare has to be balanced against human welfare. Animal
welfare is usually a priority only if it supportsthe output ofthe animal,be it food,
work,clothing,sport,orcompanionship.However,inmanysituationsthewelfareof
animalsissynonymouswiththewelfareofthehumanswholookafterthem,because
happy, healthy animals will be able to assist humans best in their struggle for
survival.Inprinciplethewelfareneedsofbothhumansandanimalscanbeprovided
for, in both developing and developed countries, if resources are properly
husbanded.Inreality,theinequitabledivisionoftheworld’srichescreatesphysical
andpsychologicalpovertyforhumansandanimalsalikeinmanypartsoftheworld.
Increased attention to welfare issues is just as evident for zoo, companion,
laboratory, sport, and wild animals. Of growing importance is the ethical manage-
ment of breeding programmes, since genetic manipulation is now technically
v
vi AnimalWelfareSeriesPreface
advanced,butthereislesspublictoleranceofthebreedingofextremeanimalsifit
comes at the expense of animal welfare. The quest for producing novel genotypes
hasfascinatedbreedersforcenturies.Dogandcatbreedershaveproducedavariety
ofdeformitiesthathaveadverseeffectsontheirwelfare,butnowadaysthebreeders
arejustasactiveinthelaboratory,wherethemouseisgeneticallymanipulatedwith
equallyprofoundeffects.
Theintimateconnectionbetweenanimalsandhumansthatwasoncesoessential
for good animal welfare is rare nowadays, having been superseded by technologi-
cally efficient production systems where animals on farms and in laboratories are
tendedbyincreasinglyfewhumansinthedrivetoenhance labourefficiency.With
today’s busy lifestyles, companion animals too may suffer from reduced contact
with humans, although their value in providing companionship, particularly for
certaingroupssuchastheelderly,isbeginningtoberecognised.Animalconsumers
alsorarelyhaveanycontactwiththeanimalsthatarekeptfortheirbenefit.
Inthisestranged,efficientworld,peoplestruggletofindthemoralimperativesto
determinethelevelofwelfarethattheyshouldaffordtoanimalswithintheircharge.
Afewpeople,andinparticularmanycompanionanimalowners,striveforwhatthey
believe to be the highest levels of welfare provision, while others, deliberately or
through ignorance, keep animals in impoverished conditions in which their health
andwellbeingcanbeextremelypoor.Today’smultiplemoralcodesforanimalcare
and use are derived from a broad range of cultural influences, including media
reports of animal abuse, guidelines on ethical consumption, and campaigning and
lobbyinggroups.
This series has been designed to contribute towards a culture of respect for
animals and their welfare by producing learned treatises about the provision for
the welfare of the animal species that are managed and cared for by humans. The
early species-focused books were not detailed management blueprints; rather they
described and considered the major welfare concerns, often with reference to the
behaviourofthewildprogenitorsofthemanagedanimals.Welfarewasspecifically
focusedonanimals’needs,concentratingonnutrition,behaviour,reproduction,and
thephysicalandsocialenvironment.Economiceffectsofanimalwelfareprovision
were also considered where relevant, as were key areas where further research is
required.
Inthisvolume,theseriesagaindepartsfromasinglespeciesfocustoaddressthe
welfareoffish.EditorsToreS.Kristiansen,AndersFernö,MichailA.Pavlidis,and
Hans van de Vis have drawn from their extensive research in this field to gather a
large group of authors who consider the topic from a variety of angles. This is an
emerging science, which hitherto has attracted little attention, so it is necessary to
startwiththebasics,fromdefiningtheneurologyoffishandtheanatomyofthefish
brain to asking suchquestions as “Do fish experiencepain?” It isevidentfrom the
contributed chapters that there are serious welfare issues that should be a focus of
immediateattention.Prominentamongthesearethefollowingconcerns:theeffects
onwelfareofcatchandrelease fishingandintensivefishfarmingandofanthropo-
genicenvironmentalchanges.Theissueofhowpetfishbehaveandhowsimilartheir
behaviour is to their wild counterparts is addressed, and, similarly, how laboratory
AnimalWelfareSeriesPreface vii
fisharetreated.Consideringthattherearearound34,000speciesoffish,andthatfish
are considered by a few not to be sentient, the book also describes in detail the
learningcapacityoffish,aswellasotheraspectsoftheircognition.Alsoincludedare
details of the remarkable discoveries that fish have different personalities and a
considerablememory.Thebookwillundoubtedlybecomeastandardreferencework
inthisemergingareaofanimalwelfarescience,anditishopedthatitwillstimulatea
newdeterminationtoaddresstheriskstowelfarethatarethefocusofthebook.
Atlanta,USA MariekeGartner
Brisbane,Australia ClivePhillips
Preface
On a beautiful cold day in March I (Tore) am sailing along the coast of western
Norwaywatchingtheendlessoceanasitdisappearsintothewest.Beneaththeblue
surfaceliestheworldoffishes—aworldcompletelyunknowntomostofus.WhenI
amsnorkelling ordivingI always get thefeeling that this isacompletely new and
differentplace,aworldwhereIcanfloatweightlesslyoverdeepabyssessurrounded
by quite different kinds of organisms and landscapes. The multitude of fishes
evolved to live in this environment while I obviously did not. While the mackerel
seemtoswimeffortlesslyathighspeed,Imuststrugglenottobesweptawaybythe
watercurrents—andIhaveairforjustafewmoreseconds!
Ever since my childhood, I have loved to lie on a landing stage in the harbour
watchingwrassesandotherfishswimmingbelow.Whoareheretoday?Howdothey
behaveandrelatetoeachother?Dotheyknowwhoiswho?ForhoursIcouldsimply
lietherelostintheunderwaterworld.Somethingnewcouldhappenanytime!Abig
pollack might enter the scene, and suddenly the behaviour of the “locals” would
change.Nottopanic,butclearlypayingmoreattentiontothepotentialthreat,while
thepollackwasobviouslyawarethatithadbeendetectedandthat asuddenattack
wasuselesswhenitspreywerealert.
Sincethen,thelivesoffisheshavebecomeanimportantpartoftheprofessional
lifeofalloftheeditors,asprofessorsandresearchers,and“fishwelfare”,whichwas
unknownwhenIwasyoung,hasbecomeawidelyusedconcept,atleastinEurope.
Wehavestudiedthewelfareoffarmedandwildfish,andwehavecarriedoutalotof
fundamentalresearchonfishbehaviour,cognitionandstressphysiology,andother
welfare-related topics. We have learned a lot about fish and have discovered the
enormousdiversityandrichnessoftheworldoffishes,butwehavealsorealisedthat
sofarwehavevisitedonlyafewislandsinourwideoceanofignorance.
But now, we are near the end of our journey to create The Welfare of Fish—a
journey that has led us to some unexpected places, both geographically and scien-
tifically.TheeditorsfirstmetinthesmallvillageofMochlosonCretetodiscussthe
contentsandhowweshouldapproachthischallengeissuedbySpringer.Thisought
tobeaneasytask,wethought,sincetogetherweknowquitealotaboutfishwelfare,
ix
x Preface
butwhen we revisited our“knowledge”, we soonrealisedthat thechallengewas a
greater challenge than we had expected. In the first place, there are around 34,000
fish species, which are probably much more different from each other than, for
example, frogs and humans. Of these, we had some knowledge about only a few,
whilemostofthemweretotallyunknowntous.Then,eventhoughfishwelfareisa
multidimensional topic, the most important aspect for us as scientists is to under-
stand the subjective experience of fishes: How do their qualitative experiences
enable them to cope with their world? We soon understood we needed help from
scientistswhoknewmorethanusaboutthedifferenttopicsinvolved,andwebegan
tocontactexpertsweknewfrompreviouscooperationandfromtheliterature—and
almostallofthemwerewillingtocontribute.
Wehavenottriedtotellastoryinwhichallthepiecesfinallycometogether;each
chapter can be read independently. The authors have different backgrounds, in
addition to their own view of what “fish welfare” means, and we have not tried to
arrive at a consensus. The book is not only about fish welfare and how we should
behavetowardsthefishweinteractwith,butalsoanattempttointroducethereader
totheworldtheyinhabit.Wehavechosentotellsomestoriesaboutwhofishareand
howandwheretheylive,howtheyfunction,theircognitivecapacities,andhowthey
behaveinandcopewiththeirsocialandphysicalenvironment.Wehavealsotriedto
getaglimpseoftheirbrainsandtospeculateabouthownewknowledgeandtheories
inneurobiologycanofferusnewinsightsandhypothesesaboutwhatitisliketobea
fish(Fig.1).Soherecomesabriefintroductiontothefollowing21chapters.
The history of the concept “fish welfare” is quite short, going back only a few
decadesintime.InChap.1,ToreS.KristiansenandMarcBrackebrieflyrevisitthe
origins of the animal welfare movement, the various definitions of welfare, how
Fig.1 IntheThalassokosmosAquariumatHeraklioninCrete,Imetthesetworockfishface-to-
face.Wewerestaringateachotherthroughthethinglasssurfacethatseparatedourworlds,onlya
fewinchesaway.Theywereobviouslyawareofeachotherandofme,andIfeltthat“someone”was
watching me. They were obviously socially aware beings, not mere somethings. (Photo: Tore
S.Kristiansen)
