Fish Movement Survey Results (Fish Welfare Initiative)

To better understand the growing fish welfare advocacy movement, Fish Welfare Initiative ran a survey of 52 existing animal protection organizations selected due to their current work on fish issues or their intention to do so in the future. The results were encouraging, showing that most of these organizations are already working on fish issues and that a majority of the rest are planning to do so in the next three years. Respondents noted a variety of tactics and regional focuses for their work. The following are our key findings:

• Of the organizations that plan to work on fish issues, the majority (92%) either already work on fish issues or plan to do so in the next three years.
• Fish welfare work has a broad international focus; for every continent except Antarctica, at least 20% of organizations are planning to work on fish issues there.
• The type of work planned is diverse. This diversity is exciting, as we suggest that now is a critical time to “explore” work into fish welfare.
• A lack of scientific research and a low knowledge base remain significant bottlenecks in the fish welfare movement. Organizations want more research into foundational questions around fish welfare.
• 92% of respondents showed some interest in creating a working group to promote collaboration in the fish welfare space.