Aquaculture is a large and ever-growing industry, and a “Fundamentals” resource can’t cover everything. Here are some of the topics we chose not to include in this overview.

• Deep Dives On Every Farmed Species: Hundreds of different aquatic species are farmed around the world — over 400 according to a recent count. While our resource covers the larger issues around aquaculture, with the occasional focus on specific categories like shrimp, octopi, and more, we couldn’t provide a detailed welfare profile for every single species farmed around the world. Doing so would have made the resource prohibitively long — even if we account for the fact that 57% of farmed aquatic species have no published research on their welfare needs. Instead, we focused on the common welfare problems that affect the vast majority of farmed aquatic animals. This is an area where more species-specific research is urgently needed.
• In-Depth Regional Breakdowns: Aquaculture practices, key species, and regulations vary significantly from country to country. While we highlighted that China is by far the largest producer, we couldn’t provide a detailed analysis of the industry in every major region. Our goal was to present a global overview of the most common issues rather than a country-by-country guide.
• Detailed Advocacy Strategies And Solutions: While we do introduce some groups and regions working on advocacy and industry opposition, our resource was ultimately intended to define the problems, not to provide a comprehensive roadmap of solutions. A deep dive into the pros and cons of different interventions — such as the specifics of humane slaughter technology, the debate over various certification schemes, or the development of alternative feeds — was beyond our scope. These complex topics deserve their own dedicated resources, and we encourage you to check out the numerous groups working in this area, such as Aquatic Animal Alliance, Aquatic Life Institute, Crustacean Compassion, Ethical Seafood Research, Fish Welfare Initiative, and Shrimp Welfare Project, among others.
• Feeding Wild Fishes To Farmed Fishes: Something we could have expanded on further were the links between aquaculture and wild catch fisheries, with a significant portion of the latter being used to feed the former. Current sustainability certifications may not be telling the whole story, and this dynamic challenges the narrative of fish farming as an inherently sustainable alternative to commercial fishing. It also highlights how the general public may not be aware of these hidden costs when making food choices.
• The Ornamental Fish Trade: Aquaculture also supplies the significant global trade in “ornamental” or pet fishes for aquariums — by some estimates, 90 to 96% of ornamental fishes are raised in aquaculture facilities. The animal welfare concerns in this industry are serious and deserving of attention. However, we chose to focus our resource on aquaculture for human food, as the number of individual animals involved is orders of magnitude greater.

These are just some of the issues we could have covered, and that we might cover in a future update.

When we set out to make this resource, we knew it would be impossible to cover everything, but we feel that we’ve provided some great starting points for you to explore. As we make updates to our Fundamentals series to keep them stocked with the most up-to-date data, contact us if you have ideas for data that we could add or revise! Additionally, if you find these resources useful in your advocacy, let us know how you’ve used them, and donate to help us continue this type of work.

Special thanks to our Reducetarian Fellow Ian Hammond for his vital contributions to this project, and to Coefficient Giving for their support of this project.