The majority of consumers believe fish should have the same legal protection as other farmed animals we eat, according to a large survey conducted by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF).
Most of the 9,127 adults polled also supported stronger fish welfare legislation. And 92% said they would like to buy higher welfare products.
The research shows people do care about farmed fish, explained CIWF research manager Santiago Pintos during a presentation at the tenth Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School, in Oxford, UK.
Also, the more they understand about fish sentience, the more supportive they are of stricter welfare regulations.
Pintos explained: “We found that those participants who acknowledge fish sentence, fish positive and negative emotions and fish intelligence were [two times] more likely to support [welfare] legislation than those participants who denied these fish capacities.”
He also discovered that those who reported high familiarity and high knowledge of fish farming practices were “up to three times as likely to support fish welfare regulations than those who reported very low knowledge or no knowledge at all”.
The findings are promising, because raising awareness of fish sentience and fish farming practices could lead to strong public support for legislation.
The survey also showed a willingness to pay a premium for higher welfare fish: 46% would actually ‘pay considerably more’.
Previous research by Fidra, an environmental charity, showed that around 70% of consumers want to have access to information about the salmon products they buy on packaging. However, consumers are unable to easily find clear information about the salmon they are eating and how its production impacts the environment.
Wild Scottish salmon is not sold in UK supermarkets, with farm-raised salmon now supplying 100% of the increasing demand for fresh Atlantic salmon. However, it can be marketed as Scottish salmon’ rather than ‘Scottish farmed salmon’ following a change to the rules last year.
