Latest news with #fishwelfare
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Grieg Seafood sells operations in Canada and northern Norway
Grieg Seafood has sold its operations in Canada and northern Norway to Cermaq — a global salmon farming company based out of Oslo. The sale includes assets and operations in Marystown, on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. The company employs 110 people in the community, operating 14 seawater licences in Placentia Bay and a land-based freshwater facility with offices in Marystown. In a news release on Thursday, Grieg said Cermaq is "well placed to take the Newfoundland region further." "Cermaq shares our values of farming with the lowest possible environmental impact and highest possible fish welfare, as well as of respecting and contributing to the rural and Indigenous communities where the operations take place," wrote company CEO Nina Willumsen. "We are confident that the region is in the best hands and that it will continue to create local value long into the future." In February, Grieg hit pause on its plans to expand the large-scale salmon operation in Marystown. The decision was largely driven by an inability to find a financing partner and the threat of economic tariffs from the United States. Construction of the 17,500-square-metre post-smolt facility had also been delayed in October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grieg's first harvest from Placentia Bay came in 2023 with roughly 5,000 tonnes of salmon. The company told CBC News on Thursday it would not do interviews. Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our daily headlines newsletter here. Click here to visit our landing page.
CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Grieg Seafood sells operations in Canada and northern Norway
Grieg Seafood has sold its operations in Canada and northern Norway to Cermaq — a global salmon farming company based out of Oslo. The sale includes assets and operations in Marystown, on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula. The company employs 110 people in the community, operating 14 seawater licences in Placentia Bay and a land-based freshwater facility with offices in Marystown. In a news release on Thursday, Grieg said Cermaq is "well placed to take the Newfoundland region further." "Cermaq shares our values of farming with the lowest possible environmental impact and highest possible fish welfare, as well as of respecting and contributing to the rural and Indigenous communities where the operations take place," wrote company CEO Nina Willumsen. "We are confident that the region is in the best hands and that it will continue to create local value long into the future." In February, Grieg hit pause on its plans to expand the large-scale salmon operation in Marystown. The decision was largely driven by an inability to find a financing partner and the threat of economic tariffs from the United States. Construction of the 17,500-square-metre post-smolt facility had also been delayed in October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grieg's first harvest from Placentia Bay came in 2023 with roughly 5,000 tonnes of salmon.
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Fish can suffer ‘intense pain', surprising new study finds
A new study reveals that fish, such as rainbow trout, suffer between 2 to 20 minutes of intense pain during slaughter for food, particularly when using air asphyxiation. Researchers estimate that rainbow trout endure an average of 10 minutes of moderate to intense pain during air asphyxiation, a common slaughter method where fish are deprived of oxygen. The study suggests that chilling fish in ice slurry after capture may prolong their suffering by slowing down metabolic processes and extending the time to unconsciousness. Electrical stunning, if implemented correctly, could significantly reduce the pain experienced by fish, potentially averting 1 to 20 hours of moderate to extreme pain for every dollar spent. The Welfare Footprint Framework is highlighted as a method to quantify and compare animal welfare interventions, providing metrics to guide cost-benefit decisions and improve slaughter practices.
The Independent
13-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Some fish feel excruciating pain for up to 20 minutes after catch, scientists find
Fish like the rainbow trout suffer 2 to 20 minutes of excruciating pain while they are harvested and killed for food, according to a new study. The research, published in Scientific Reports, reveals the hidden pain of fish during slaughter and offers solutions to improve their welfare. Researchers hope the findings can help improve the welfare of up to 2.2 trillion wild and 171 billion farmed fish killed every year for human consumption. In the study, scientists focussed on a common method of slaughtering fish called air asphyxiation. Animal welfare groups have flagged this method, which involves depriving fish of oxygen, as inhumane given the significant amount of time they take to lose consciousness in this process. Researchers found that rainbow trout endured an average of 10 minutes of intense pain during this process, with estimates ranging from 2 to 22 minutes depending on factors like fish size and water temperature. 'Based on a review of research on stress responses during asphyxiation, we estimate 10 min of moderate to intense pain per trout,' they wrote. The study cautioned that chilling fish in ice slurry after being caught could cause an even greater burden of pain. 'By slowing down metabolic processes, lower temperatures may extend the time to unconsciousness,' it noted. Looking at other interventions, researchers found that if implemented properly, electrical stunning could avert 1 to 20 hours of moderate to extreme pain experienced by fish for every US dollar spent on slaughtering them. Another method called percussive stunning, which involves dealing a blow to an animal's head with special devices, could kill fish quickly without much suffering but faced 'implementation challenges', researchers said, adding that other pre-slaughter practices like fish crowding during transport might cause even greater suffering. The study also highlights the use of the Welfare Footprint Framework, a method to quantify animal welfare by estimating the total time they spend in various states of suffering or well-being. It uses time-based values to subjective experiences for direct comparisons between different animal welfare interventions. "The Welfare Footprint Framework provides a rigorous and transparent evidence-based approach to measuring animal welfare and enables informed decisions about where to allocate resources for the greatest impact,' Wladimir Alonso, an author of the study, said. 'These findings provide transparent, evidence-grounded and comparable metrics to guide cost–benefit decisions and inform slaughter regulations and practices in trout.'
Daily Mail
09-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Fish feel PAIN just like humans, scientists say - as they call for common slaughter method to be halted immediately
From fish and chips to fish pie, many British staples focus on seafood. But a new study might make you think twice before ordering one of these popular dishes. Scientists have revealed the hidden pain that fish go through during a common slaughter method known as 'air asphyxia'. This method involves allowing fish to suffocate in air or on ice - and can often take well over an hour. In their study, researchers from the Welfare Footprint Institute found that the average rainbow trout endures 10 minutes of 'intense pain' during air asphyxia. Based on the findings, the researchers are calling for air asphyxia to be banned, and for 'stunning' methods to be used instead. 'Pain and distress from asphyxia in fish can be potentially mitigated by stunning methods that induce rapid loss of consciousness,' they wrote in their study. 'For stunning to be considered humane and effective, pre-slaughter handling must be minimised and the animal must become unconscious immediately after stunning, a state that must persist until death.' Every year, up to 2.2 trillion wild and 171 billion farmed fish are killed, according to the researchers. However, several traditional methods of killing these fish are inhumane. 'Farmed fish are still commonly killed by asphyxiation (suffocation by taking them out of water), exposure to carbon dioxide, exposure to very low temperatures or bleeding without stunning,' the RSPCA explains. 'These procedures take several minutes to induce insensibility and cannot be regarded as humane.' In their study, the team set out to understand exactly how fish react to air asphyxia. Focusing on rainbow trout, the team found that during air asphyxia, fish experience anything between two and 22 minutes of 'intense pain', depending on factors like fish size and water temperature. This translates to around 24 minutes of pain per kilogram of fish, according to the experts. In contrast, 'stunning' methods are immediate, meaning the fish don't suffer. 'Electrical and percussive stunning methods for fish are now becoming more common,' the RSPCA explained. 'These include water-bath stunning systems where fish pass through electrified water to stun them, and percussive stunning of fish using automated flow-through systems where fish remain in water until the point of stunning. 'These systems remove the need for pre-slaughter handling of fish and allow fish to be effectively stunned prior to being bled out.' While you might think that these methods would be more expensive, the researchers say that this isn't the case. 'If implemented properly, electrical stunning could avert 60 to 1,200 minutes of moderate to extreme pain for every U.S. dollar of capital cost,' they explained.
