Abstract
Simple SummaryAquaculture is about farming aquatic animals in certain facilities, in order to meet the global demand for aquatic animal products. However, reproduction and raising of all commercially important aquatic animals under farming conditions are not always feasible or cost-effective. Thus, for some fish and shellfish species, a system that relies on the collection of wild individuals, at various life stages and rearing in controlled facilities, has been employed. These animals, however, are not products of a lengthy domestication process and thus are not used to the artificial environment of the fish farms. The way they respond to the various stressful conditions might be different, compared to the domesticated fish. Therefore, we have to make sure that we use the appropriate rearing methods, for the entire time, so that their impact on the fish welfare is minimized. Apart from the moral obligations, this will also increase the profitability of the activity.Capture-based aquaculture (CBA) represents a type of intensive aquaculture production system for some economically valuable fish species, such as bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), eel (Anguilla spp.) and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). In CBA, fish are captured from the wild in certain periods of the year, and following a recovery phase, they are kept in rearing facilities for a period of time, until they reach the market size. In this case, the fish are wild and have not gone through domestication like other fish species that are reproduced and farmed under the established farming systems. Therefore, these fish are not genetically adapted to live under the intensive farming conditions, and thus their welfare may be compromised in different manners compared to their domesticated counterparts. This review presents an overview of the current situation of CBA, while focusing on the assessment of fish welfare in CBA. The most commonly used fish welfare indicators will be discussed in relation to the different stages of CBA.
Highlights
Aquaculture is considered as the fastest growing sector in food industry, representing46% of global fish production in 2018
Over exploitation of wild seed for Capture-based aquaculture (CBA) can be devastating to wild fish stocks by lowering the natural recruitment of sexually mature adults
Many CBA practices, such for tuna and yellowtail, still depend on wet food, such as low -value/trash fish, in one or many occasions during the aquaculture phase [7], because wild fish, especially when the initial life stage used for stocking is older, without domestication practices still seek for their natural food sources rather than dry pellet or flake feed
Summary
Aquaculture is considered as the fastest growing sector in food industry, representing. Solely depended on wild seed, for example, from gravid females or early life stages. Even though the term “capture-based aquaculture” is relatively new, as it is was introduced in 2004, CBA has been practiced locally for many years in many countries through traditional means, for a variety of freshwater and marine fish and other aquatic invertebrate species [5]. The present review, will focus on the stages of capture-based fish farming and the particular welfare issues related to them. It should be noted though, that any ethical issues regarding the exploitation of wild animals are beyond the scope of this review
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