April 3, 2025

On World Aquatic Animal Day, we take a moment to recognize the incredible diversity and complexity of aquatic animals. The aquatic world is vast, and the beings within it are far more intricate than [..]

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Carefish/catch News image

April 3, 2025

On World Aquatic Animal Day, we take a moment to recognize the incredible diversity and complexity of aquatic animals. The aquatic world is vast, and the beings within it are far more intricate than we often realize.

Fishes, for instance, are sentient animals capable of experiencing pain, stress, and fear. Research has demonstrated over the years that common fishing practices—such as hook injuries, net entanglement, and prolonged crowding and exposure to air—can cause significant suffering for these animals.

It’s essential to investigate and promote better fishing practices to reduce the suffering of these aquatic animals in fisheries. This is the main focus of our Carefish/catch project. Small changes in how we fish can make a big difference for these aquatic animals.

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Our goals

The welfare of wild-caught fishes has been overlooked in practice, research, advocacy, and policy. The Carefish/catch project aims to promote better fishing standards, by addressing 5 main goals:

  • assess global animal welfare impacts in fisheries
  • identify the potential of reducing animal suffering in various fishing methods and species
  • analyse the economic and social feasibility of the improvements suggested
  • raise problem and solution awareness in general and specific audiences
  • implement welfare guidelines into the Friend of the Sea fisheries certification scheme

Our outreach

To establish welfare standards in fisheries, we devise assessments to identify keypoints of welfare hazards and suggest improvements to reduce suffering of individuals in specific fishing methods.

Our welfare assessment reports in fisheries:

Some Summer Shoal 2023 event participants formulated their thoughts and ideas for better fish welfare. The result is an informal yet substantial collection of suggestions, principles, goals, and insights in twelve essays, the Whitepaper on Fish Welfare , released in August 2024.

 
fair-fish international
Talweg 159
8610 Uster
Switzerland
 
Tel. +41 79 255 61 77
mail@carefish.net