The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $285,000 over two years to Global Animal Partnership (GAP) to develop welfare standards for farmed fish species. This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's work on farm animal welfare.
GAP will seek to develop standards for 4-6 farmed fish species (beginning with salmon) by establishing a partnership with an existing aquaculture certification program and developing a multi-step framework for farmed fish based on land animal models. GAP also intends to develop a strategy for raising consumer awareness of farmed fish welfare, and to run a promotional campaign for the launch of their initial salmon certification program. It intends to use these funds for the hiring of a fish welfare expert to lead the development of the standards, travel for visits to international fish farms, field testing of standards and consultations with experts, and marketing support.
Open Philanthropy's Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare, Lewis Bollard, began looking into funding opportunities related to farmed fish welfare in 2016, due to the number of animals affected by fish farming. He believes established fish welfare standards could eventually form the basis for welfare requests in corporate or institutional campaigns, and thinks GAP is well-positioned to lead this effort due to the credibility of its US land animal welfare certification program. The main challenge he anticipates with this project is GAP’s current lack of established relationships with aquaculture companies.