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Fish Ethology and Welfare

Short Title 
FishEthoGroup
Description 

We conduct research on ethology and welfare of aquatic animals. Other activities include developing an open-access database on the welfare of farmed fish, providing consultancy services for fish farms and organizing training actions at scientific and industry levels.

Coordinator 

Organiza

Main

The Fish Ethology and Welfare Group develops its activity in 4 main pillars:

  • Fundamental research on the ethology and welfare of aquatic animals (namely fish), including not only proximate mechanisms underlying behaviour such as endocrinology, neurobiology and transcriptomics, but also ultimate mechanisms such as ecology, evolution, adaptation and selection (see publications);
  • An open-access database on welfare of farmed aquatic animals, reviewing essential welfare criteria for all aquatic animal species currently farmed worldwide (see FishEthoBase);
  • Consultancy for fish farms with the aim of establishing welfare standards for aquaculture (see the CAREFISH project);
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Members

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Maria Cabrera's picture
Position:
Former
Other Past Members 
Pablo Arechavala-López (IMEDEA/CSIC, Spain)
Jenny Volstorf
Sebastian Scholz
Billo Heinzpeter-Studer
Gallery
Publications
Selected Publications 
Arechavala-López PA, Saraiva JL. Welfare Of Cultured And Experimental Fishes. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI; 2019. doi:10.3390/books978-3-03921-711-3
Huntingford F, Kadri S, Saraiva JL. Welfare of cage cultured fish under climate change. In: Climate Change On Diseases And Disorders Of Finfish In Cage Culture, 3Rd Edition. 3rdrd ed. Climate Change on Diseases and Disorders of Finfish in Cage Culture, 3rd edition. CABI; 2023.
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-Lopez P, Sneddon L. Farming fish. In: Routledge Handbook Of Animal Welfare. Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare. Taylor and Francis; 2022.
Saraiva JL, Castanheira MFilipa, Arechavala-López PA, Volstorf J, Studer BHeinzpeter. Domestication and Welfare in Farmed Fish. In: Animal Domestication. Animal Domestication. ; 2018. doi:10.5772/intechopen.77251
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-López PA, Castanheira MF, Volstorf J, Studer BHeinzpeter. A Global Assessment of Welfare in Farmed Fishes: The Fishethobase. Fishes. 2019. doi:10.3390/fishes4020030
All Publications
Saraiva JL, Volstorf J, Cabrera-Álvarez MJ, Arechavala-Lopez P. Using Ethology To Improve Farmed Fish Welfare And Production. Brussels: Aquaculture Advisory Council; 2022. https://aac-europe.org/images/AAC_ethology_and_welfare_final.pdf.
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-Lopez P, Sneddon L. Finding the "golden stocking density": a balance between fish welfare and farmers' perspectives. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2022. doi:10.3389/fvets.2022.930221
Arechavala-Lopez P, Nuñez-Velazquez S, Diaz-Gil C, Follana-Berná G, Saraiva JL. Suspended Structures Reduce Variability of Group Risk-Taking Responses of Dicentrarchus labrax Juvenile Reared in Tanks. Fishes. 2022;7(3):126. doi:10.3390/fishes7030126
Palstra AP, Arechavala-Lopez P, Xue Y, Roque A. Accelerometry of Seabream in a Sea-Cage: Is Acceleration a Good Proxy for Activity?. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2021;8. doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.639608
Rios-Fuster B, Arechavala-Lopez P, García-Marcos K, et al. Experimental evidence of physiological and behavioral effects of microplastic ingestion in Sparus aurata. Aquatic Toxicology. 2021;231:105737. doi:10.1016/j.aquatox.2020.105737
Arechavala-Lopez P, Pérez-Mayol S, Palmer M, Valero-Rodriguez JM, Sanchez-Jerez P, Morales-Nin B. Tracing of aquaculture-escaped meagre Argyrosomus regius through otolith microchemistry. Journal of Sea Research. 2021;169:102007. doi:10.1016/j.seares.2021.102007
Follana-Berná G, Palmer M, Campos-Candela A, et al. Consequences of trait-selective fisheries on population reproductive potential: An experimental approach. Fisheries Research. 2021;239:105939. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2021.105939
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-Lopez P, Cabrera-Alvarez M, Waley D. Particular Welfare Needs In Animal Transport: Aquatic Animals. Brussels: European Parliament; 2021. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=IPOL_STU(2021)690875.
Candela MGimenez, Saraiva JL, Bauer H. The legal protection of farmed fish in Europe – analysing the range of EU legislation and the impact of international animal welfare standards for the fishes in European aquaculture. dA. Derecho Animal (Forum of Animal Law Studies). 2020;11(1). doi:10.5565/rev/da.460
Follana-Berná G, Palmer M, Lekanda-Guarrotxena A, Grau A, Arechavala-Lopez P. Fish density estimation using unbaited cameras: Accounting for environmental-dependent detectability. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 2020;527. doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2020.151376
Muñoz L, Aspillaga E, Palmer M, Saraiva JL, Arechavala-Lopez P. Acoustic telemetry: a tool to monitor fish swimming behaviour in sea-cage aquaculture. Frontiers in Marine Science. 2020. doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00645
Diaz-Gil C, Alós J, Arechavala-Lopez P, et al. Reversible morphological changes in a juvenile marine fish after exposure to predatory alarm cues. Royal Society Open Science. 2020;7(5):191945. doi:10.1098/rsos.191945
Arechavala-Lopez P, Caballero-Froilán JC, Jiménez-García M, et al. Enriched environments enhance cognition, exploratory behaviour and brain physiological functions of Sparus aurata. Scientific Reports. 2020;10(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-020-68306-6
Arechavala-López PA, Nazzaro-Alvarez J, Jardí-Pons A, et al. Linking stocking densities and feeding strategies with social and individual stress responses on gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Physiology & Behavior. 2020;213. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112723
Baduy F, Saraiva JL, Ribeiro F, Canario AVM, Guerreiro PM. Distribution and Risk Assessment of Potential Invasiveness of Australoheros facetus (Jenyns, 1842) in Portugal. Fishes. 2020;5(1). doi:10.3390/fishes5010003
CASTRO-FERNÁNDEZ JULIA, CASTEJÓN-SILVO INÉS, Arechavala-Lopez P, TERRADOS JORGE, Morales-Nin B. Feeding ecology of pipefish species inhabiting Mediterranean seagrasses. Mediterranean Marine Science. 2019. doi:10.12681/mms.22455
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-López PA, Castanheira MF, Volstorf J, Studer BHeinzpeter. A Global Assessment of Welfare in Farmed Fishes: The Fishethobase. Fishes. 2019. doi:10.3390/fishes4020030
Arechavala-López PA, Diaz-Gil C, Saraiva JL, et al. Effects of structural environmental enrichment on welfare of juvenile seabream (Sparus aurata). Aquaculture Reports. 2019;15. doi:10.1016/j.aqrep.2019.100224
Saraiva JL. Fish Lives Matter! Science-based evidence and directions for humane fish farming. 2019.
Saraiva JL, Arechavala-Lopez P. Welfare of Fish—No Longer the Elephant in the Room. Fishes. 2019;4:39–0. doi:10.3390/fishes4030039
Arechavala-López PA, Saraiva JL. Welfare Of Cultured And Experimental Fishes. Basel, Switzerland: MDPI; 2019. doi:10.3390/books978-3-03921-711-3
Höglund E, Moltesen M, Castanheira MF, et al. Contrasting neurochemical and behavioural profiles reflects stress coping styles but not stress responsiveness in farmed gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Physiology and Behavior. 2019. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112759
Oliveira C, McStay E, Cabrita E, et al. Investigating the kisspeptin system in the hermaphrodite teleost gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part A, Molecular & integrative physiology. 2019. doi:10.1016/j.cbpa.2019.110624
Saraiva JL, Castanheira MF, Arechavala-López PA, Bray P, Studer BHeinzpeter. The CAREFISH project: establishing scientific welfare standards in fish farming certification. 2018.
Projects
News
News 
Our researchers point to environmental enrichment as a key element for the future of aquaculture.
Our resercher João Saraiva will lead a study to provide insight and advice to the European aquaculture stakeholders on the benefits in using the growing knowledge of fish behaviour and ethology in fish production.
For the second year, the Summer Shoal edition was organised by our researchers in Portugal, in the Algarve, where participants focused on an exchange of knowledge and ideas to be implemented in aquaculture.
The report coordinated by our researcher João Saraiva provides insight and advice to the European Commission on how to improve the welfare of aquaculture fish and its production.
Nuno has joined CCMAR, where he will be working in the laboratory with experimental fish species, as well as helping to develop projects. Welcome!