News

Invitation to make a presentation at the APROMAR meeting

The first face-to-face meeting of APROMAR (Spanish Aquaculture Association) in 2024 was on March 12th, in Madrid - Spain. This event discussed APROMAR's projects since 2015, with emphasis on 2023. Pablo was invited to present some projects that APROMAR is financing.

Pablo talked about the study and management of predator interactions with sea bream and sea bass grow-out facilities; and was also in charge of presenting the Aquaculture Sea Bream and Sea Bass Welfare Guides.

>> This news is already in the media. If you are interested, access it here.

(posted on March 25, 2024)

New podcast episode about fish abilities in Portuguese!

One of our activities is developing scientific dissemination actions to share knowledge related to the welfare of fishes and other aquatic species. As part of this, The Fish Mind is a programme of our podcast Fish Talk that is focused on the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel other affective states, and display great cognitive abilities. The idea is to present this important information in an informal dialogue of a few minutes.

We released our second episode about cognitive abilities of fishes in portuguese. Did you know that fishes are able to use things to get food? Using tools is a well-known ability in mammals and birds, but science has demonstrated that fishes are also able to do that! This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about tool use in fishes.

>> The Fish Mind programme results from a collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.

>> If you would like to listen to this episode, please go to our Spotify page here or to our Fish talk page here.

(posted on March 18, 2024)

We are very pleased to be a member of the AQUATECHinn 4.0 project!

AQUATECHinn 4.0 is a project aiming to transform traditional aquaculture by promoting digital learning. It is an exciting initiative to create a ground-breaking online course that will provide free training for current and future aquaculture professionals and students.

We are creating content for the three modules of the online platform, namely on new trends in aquaculture, on how to promote the circular economy in the sector, on new technologies in fish and mollusc aquaculture, and, of course, on improving fish welfare.

> We're thrilled to be part of this important initiative!

> If you would like to know more about this project, click here.

(posted on March 12, 2024)

Tool use in fishes

Science has increasingly demonstrated over the years that fishes are animals with incredible capacities and cognitive abilities. One good example is their tool use ability, which was once considered an exclusive characteristic of humans.

And it is not new to science that fishes are capable of using tools, although this is not as widely disseminated in the media as it is for primates. If you are interested, take a look at our infographic here for more details.

> Collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil

(posted on March 5, 2024)

New post about fish abilities at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!

Although it is common that people think fishes do not have great cognitive abilities, these aquatic animals are capable of doing amazing things. For instance, fishes may be able to use tools, an ability once deemed exclusive to humans. While this is a well-established trait in mammals and birds, science has demonstrated that fish also have this capability!

In the new post of 'The fish mind' section at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog, we explored this fish ability. 'The fish mind' is a FishEthoGroup section that talks about the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel positive affective states, and express amazing cognitive abilities, bringing some important scientific evidence about these themes.

> If you would like to read the new post, click here

"The fish mind' section of the FishEthoGroup at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog is part of a post-doc project in collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal (Brazil).

(posted on Feb. 26, 2024)

New podcast episode about fish abilities!

One of our activities is developing scientific dissemination actions to share knowledge related to the welfare of fishes and other aquatic species. As part of this, The Fish Mind is a programme of our podcast Fish Talk that is focused on the capacity of fishes to suffer, feel other affective states, and display great cognitive abilities. The idea is to present this important information in an informal dialogue of a few minutes.

Last week we released our second episode about cognitive abilities of fishes. Did you know that fishes are able to use things to get food? Using tools is a very well-known ability in mammals and birds, but science has demonstrated that fishes are also able to do that! This podcast episode is focused on this topic, bringing relevant scientific evidence about tool use in fishes.

> The Fish Mind programme results from a collaboration with Centro de Aquicultura da UNESP - Jaboticabal, Brazil.

> If you are interested, go to our Spotify page here or to our website here and listen to this episode.

(posted on Feb. 20, 2024)

The fruits of our work are making headlines in the media!

>> Several of our proposals included in the Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) recommendation to the European Commission have already been implemented. The response document from the European Commission demonstrates a commitment to reviewing European directives on fish welfare and outlining measures for the European Food Safety Authority to implement.

And the media is buzzing about it! 

>> You can access the news from the media about this here, here and here.

(posted on Feb. 14, 2024)

We are making an impact!

We are excited that the recommendation delivered by the Aquaculture Advisory Council (AAC) to the European Commission that was based on a report we produced is having an impact!

The recommendation is about using ethology, an understanding of fish behaviour, to improve fish welfare and production. Several of our proposals that were adopted in this AAC recommendation have already been implemented by the European Commission.

Their response document shows a commitment to reviewing European directives on fish welfare and outlining measures for the European Food Safety Authority to take.

>> You may access the AAC recommendation here.
>> You may also access the European Commission response here.

(posted on Feb. 6, 2024)

New post at ConsCIÊNCIA Animal blog!

Mangrove red snapper (Lutjanus argentimaculatus) is a fish naturally found in the tropical and subtropical waters of Indo-West Pacific. It is commercially important in Asia for its flesh and popular in Australia for recreational fishing. There are still important knowledge gaps for this species considering its natural behaviours or farming conditions...

> If you would like to know more about Mangrove red snapper, take a look at our new post about this species at blog ConsCIÊNCIA Animal here.

> You can also access its overview page here and its WelfareCheck profile here in the fair-fish database.

(posted on Jan. 30, 2024)

New tailored course!

Disseminating scientific-based knowledge is one of our activities to help improving the welfare of farmed fishes and other aquatic animals in a practical way. Good communication is fundamental to effectively reach our goals. Thus, teaching tailored courses about fish ethology and welfare is also an important part of our activities.

As part of this, last year we taught a tailored course on Fish Welfare for the Shanghai Ocean University, China. It happened in December. We would like to thank everyone involved with special thanks to our invited speakers Pedro Miguel Guerreiro and Javier Sanchez Vazquez.

> It was a great opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge!

(posted on Jan. 25, 2024)

FishEthoGroup is now a strategic partner of S2AQUA!

The S2AQUAcoLAB is a private non-profit institution working for smart and sustainable aquaculture in a collaborative vision between stakeholders. Strategic partners of the institution are entities that wish to participate in S2AQUA activities and contribute to reach its objectives.

FishEthoGroup shares these values and has unique expertise in the field of fish welfare in terms of fundamental and applied knowledge, besides policy advice. Thus, common vision and the sharing of strengths make this partnership a promising collaboration.

> We are excited about this new partnership!

(posted on Jan. 23, 2024)

new podcast episodes in our fair-fish database programme!

Fair-fish database programme is a series of very short audios of our Fish Talk podcast. The audios are focused on fish species with profiles already published in the database of fair-fish. The idea is to give information about natural needs, behaviours and farming conditions of fishes and other aquatic farmed animals; all this in less than 3 min.

> Yesterday we released new episodes of this programme. This time they are focused on Northern pike (Esox lucius), Whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) and European perch (Perca fluviatilis).

> If you are interested, please click here to listen to the new episodes (series 17).

(posted on Jan. 16, 2024)

New paper published!

We believe that solid scientific knowledge is fundamental to improve the welfare of fishes and other farmed aquatic animals in a practical way. Thus, the publication of good quality papers in this field is the main basis for this.

> In this line, Caroline Marques Maia and Joao L. Saraiva co-authored a paper with Eliane Gonçalves de Freitas that was recently published in Fish and Fisheries journal! As far as we know, this is the first review about preference and motivation responses of fishes applied to their welfare.

The authors highlight the importance of evaluating preference, avoidance and motivation responses of fishes to better assure their welfare considering a feelings-based approach, also exploring the limitations and biases when testing and interpreting such responses. They give a summary of reccomendations for applying such tests and give some hints about how to apply fish preference and motivation in aquaculture.

> If you would like to take a look at this new review, access it here.

(posted on Jan. 8, 2024)

About FishEthoGroup Association

FishEthoGroup is a team of motivated and dedicated scientists and professionals who are focused on improving the welfare of farmed fishes and other aquatic animals based on their natural behaviours and needs...

If you want to know us better, watch the video and find out more about FishEthoGroup Association and the projects and actions that we are involved to promote the assessment and the improvement of the welfare of farmed and wild-caught fishes and other aquatic animals.

(posted on Jan. 4, 2024)

Participation in the Cure4Aqua Workshop!

Disseminating scientific-based knowledge is one of our activities to help improving the welfare of farmed fishes and other aquatic animals in a practical way. Thus, making presentations at scientific events is also an important part of our activities to spread the word and share knowledge about fish behaviour and welfare.

As part of this, Joao L. Saraiva participated of the Workshop on the Welfare of the European sea bass, which was co-organised by the University of Crete and the research company Prorata, in Athens, Greece. This event is part of the project Cure4Aqua, which aims to improve the welfare of farmed fishes. João talked about behavioural indicators of farmed fish welfare.

> It was a successful and fruitful opportunity to share our ideas and exchange knowledge!

(posted on Dec. 16, 2023)







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