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);

• Advanced training (conferences, workshops and courses) concerning the welfare of fish (see Summer Shoal 2019 and Fish Welfare Course).

The Fish Ethology and Welfare Group stems from a collaboration between the Swiss NGO fair-fish International and CCMAR. Fair-fish has been involved in campaigning, research and consultancy in welfare in fisheries and fish farming since 1997, and currently provides the funding for the personnel involved in the group. CCMAR became the institutional host of the research team in October 2018.