Symposium of Fish Welfare and Fisheries

5th World Fisheries Congress
Yokohama, Japan October 20-24 2008

Sponsors: Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Please register for the conference via the 5th WFC website.
The welfare of fishes, what this means, whether human activities compromise it and, if so, what if anything should be done about it are complex, important and controversial topics. They have already been the subject of considerable debate in the context of aquaculture and recreational fisheries. In both cases, there are still many conflicting interests and many areas of uncertainty and disagreement. However, there is also sufficient consensus to underpin constructive discussion of strategies and guidelines for the responsible, welfare-friendly use of fish in aquaculture and angling.

To date, little attention has been paid to the welfare of fish in the context of commercial fisheries, although such attention will surely come and the industry should be prepared for it. The aim of this symposium is to open up debate, exchanging thoughts and hopefully identify a way forward, drawing on the experience gained in discussion of aquaculture and recreational fisheries.

Issue to be discussed include:
o What is welfare?
o Does the concept apply to fish?
o How can fish welfare best be measured?
o Are there different views of welfare relating to wild fish and to aquaculture?
o What are the common issues for aquaculture, angling and commercial fisheries?
o Are humans natural predators of fish?
o In what areas, if any, do commercial fisheries compromise fish welfare?
o Does this matter?
o What can be done about it?

This will be a one-day symposium, chaired by Michel Kaiser (Bangor University, UK), with talks in the morning and open discussion in the afternoon and early evening. Invited talks will cover:

Welfare and fisheries: Experience from aquaculture.	Felicity Huntingford	University of Glasgow
Welfare and recreational fisheries.	Robert Arlinghaus	Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology & Inland Fisheries, Berlin
Welfare in wild-capture marine fisheries.	Julian Metcalfe	CEFAS
How to balance the needs and wishes of humans against the concerns for fishes.	Peter Sandøe	Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment, University of Copenhagen
Living as Part of the Natural World.	J Claude Evans	Washington University, St Louis, USA

We intend to hold an e-conference on this topic in May/June to enable a comprehensive discussion to take place prior to the symposium. The e-conference will include introductory remarks by the keynote speakers above over a period of three weeks. The conference will be moderated by an independent e-conference administrator. Weekly summaries will be posted and the output of the e-conference will be used to set key questions for the keynote speakers to address at the symposium.

If you are interested in attending this Symposium please fill in this form.

Alternatively you can fill in this document and fax it to 00 44 1248 716367 marked FAO Professor Michel J. Kaiser