Greetings, 
 

May brought the peak of the Indian summer to the state of Andhra Pradesh. With temperatures not shying away from the 40s (that’s 104°+ for our US friends!), our ground team are proven heroes this month—religiously attending to Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture (ARA) farms to conduct water quality testing and advise farmers on how to improve fish welfare.
 

This newsletter also includes info on our Philippines government outreach work, our first farmer training event in the Philippines, as well as a post summarizing our co-hosting of the Aquatic Animal Welfare Forum at the World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare in China.

Updates from the Philippines

This month, FWI engaged in a municipality-wide Agri-Fishery Stakeholder Forum hosted by the Department of Agriculture together with other government agencies. We also conducted our first farmer training event on fish welfare in the country. Our discussions were centered on pressing fish welfare issues like disease management and feed management. 
 

Farmers in attendance completed tasks like calculating the right amount of feed input for their farms, an important factor in disease prevention. The workshop was positively received and we were especially happy with the Q&A session and conversations that went on between farmers and the other stakeholders there.

We also attended a town hall meeting in Carmen Municipality to discuss the heavy pollution that we found in Carmen Bay, pollution that we believe is partly causing the serious fish disease issues we witnessed. At the meeting, the local boatshop, which seemed to be causing most of the pollution via its boat repairs, agreed to no longer conduct repairs in the Bay. We're hopeful this will improve the lives of the tens of thousands of farmed, and even more wild, fish living in the immediate vicinity.

China Update: Our Next Steps

Last month, we co-hosted the Aquatic Animal Welfare Forum with the International Cooperation Committee of Animal Welfare (ICCAW) at the World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare. 15,000 people watched our forum and Chinese aquaculture stakeholders, for the first time, discussed the concept of aquatic animal welfare. We are now considering an in-person roundtable discussion with the forum attendees to continue the dialogue.

FWI's Guest Lecture at C.R. Reddy College

Following our recent partnership with Sir C.R. Reddy College, FWI organized a seminar on fish welfare in aquaculture for 80 students enrolled in the BSc. Fisheries program at the institution. We are excited to sensitize students on the welfare issues in aquaculture through collaborative interventions such as this one. 
 

Speaking on topics such as fish sentience, harsh weather, and prevention of disease and parasitic infections were Dr. Marco Cerqueira, FWI’s Fish Welfare Specialist; Dr. Haribabu, Former Dean of Fisheries College in Indukurpet; and Tom Billington, FWI’s Director of Impact and Evaluation. 

New Staff Member: Harshit Aggarwal

We are thrilled to welcome a former volunteer, Harshit Aggarwal, to our team as our Operations Associate. Harshit is also actively involved in supporting the Effective Altruism India community in his free time, and we are excited to have him more fully join our team.

• The UK House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has launched an inquiry exploring issues affecting marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and porpoises.
• Colombia has banned catch and release fishing.
• Frontiers in Marine Science has published a new study on shrimp welfare. 
• This 390-million-year-old fish-like fossil was discovered to be one of our oldest ancestors. 

• Fish Welfare Summer Shoal, June 28 - July 1st

• Global Animal Welfare Specialist, Aquaculture at The Humane League UK