Welfare Matters at the Blue Food Innovation Summit

The issue of aquatic animal welfare was high on the agenda of the recent Blue Food Innovation Summit held recently in London. This included a round table discussion on “The future of Sustainable and Ethical Aquaculture” and a panel session on “Aquatic Welfare & Harvest: Strengthening Standards and Driving Welfare-focuses Technologies”. Professor Dave Little participated in both sessions and noted the increasing importance being placed on welfare by UK retailers.

David Little with some of the other alumni of the Institute of Aquaculture who participated in the roundtable led by Ben Weiss on “The future of sustainable and ethical aquaculture”. Left to right: Daniel Sanchez (Compassion in World Farming), Ben Weiss (Regal Springs), Teresa Fernández (Hilton Foods), Ben North (Zoetis) and Dave Little (University of Stirling).

In particular, Linda Wood, Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager at Marks and Spencer reported that they now only source prawns from farms that do not rely on eyestalk ablation to induce spawning - based on the pioneering work of Simao Zacharias in his PhD studies.