Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

I have investigated what the Swedish legislation for farmed and wild caught fish have in common and what the differences are, also if the private standards ASC, MSC and KRAV have any additional rules that imply animal welfare in the slaughter/killing-process. The results show that there is only one similarity in the Swedish legislation between farmed and wild caught fish in the slaughter/killing-process. They are both represented in one single paragraph about animal abuse. The rest are differences.

Wild caught fish is only included in one more paragraph than the paragraph about animal abuse, certain fishing methods are prohibited. Also one utterance from the Swedish Board of Agriculture declares that it is not allowed to use fish as live bait. There is no other legislation regarding wild caught fish that involves animal welfare. Farmed fish on the other hand, are also included in one paragraph of the EU-regulation and in the Swedish animal welfare legislation because they are kept by humans. However, there are no regulations on how the slaughter should proceed and the legislation is in need of development, especially with regard to methods used to stun and slaughter fish. In Sweden, anesthesia with carbon dioxide is commonly used although the anesthetic method is very aversive and have been deemed as inhumane. According to Swedish legislation animals are to be stunned quickly, but stunning with carbon dioxide is considered a poor method as it takes several minutes before the fish loses consciousness during which the fish show aversive behaviors.

The markings ASC and MSC do not contain internal animal welfare regulations for the slaughter/killing-process of fish. KRAV has no additional regulations than the Swedish animal welfare legislation for farmed fish, except if another country that is using KRAV's label has to follow more strict regulations in their country, if these are stricter than the Swedish legislation. For wild caught fish, however, KRAV has three internal animal welfare paragraphs, one is that ships longer than 24 meters should be able to use a stunning method on board, that the fyke net should be emptied at least two times a week and fish should not be retained on the yarn or hook for more than 24 hours.

In conclusion, euthanasia of both farmed and wild caught fish are in need of welfare development in terms of legislation. Wild caught fish have barely no regulations concerning animal welfare and farmed fish need additional regulations, especially regarding the slaughter process. Private markings are an additional opportunity to increase the welfare for fishes.