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Hey there,
We hope you’re doing well! A few highlights off the top:
- New R&D Study Launched: Our satellite imagery study, the first of our planned R&D studies for the year, has now begun.
- Chinese Lit Review: We completed a literature review on Chinese papers with topics relating to fish welfare.
- Open Role in Andhra Pradesh: For Telugu-speakers in India: We’re hiring for a Field Manager in Andhra Pradesh. This is a really critical and urgent role—please share widely!
For more information on all the above, as well as other updates, see below.
Lastly, it’s worth reading the story of how animal advocates Koen and Ren started a charity to improve sea bass and sea bream welfare in the Mediterranean. After six months, due to both programmatic and comparative advantage considerations, they made the courageous decision to shut down the project.
We wanted to share this with you because it exemplifies what we believe are some of the most important themes in aquatic animal advocacy: Much of this work is novel and uncertain; it can be challenging to launch new projects; and often the best way to figure out what works is just to try it out.
The aquatic animal movement is in an early stage—even earlier than what we consider to be the still early stage of the broader animal movement. For this reason, we believe it’s really important that we continue to support novel and innovative projects like Koen’s and Ren’s, and to applaud those that share their findings as openly as they did.
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Have a great rest of your week,
Haven King-Nobles
Executive Director
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New Study: Can satellite imagery detect water quality issues remotely?
A key challenge we've previously highlighted with our farmer program is the issue of scalability. Our current approach here, which involves personal visits to each farm, is time-consuming in a way that makes dramatic scaling a challenge.
To address this, we recently began a five-week study with 20 farms to assess whether water quality data determined through the analysis of satellite imagery is sufficiently accurate and reliable to inform decision-making. Should the results prove positive—though success is by no means guaranteed—this breakthrough would significantly improve our capacity to detect and subsequently address welfare issues beyond our present scope.
We’ll publish our findings, whatever they are, once we have them. For now, you can explore further details of this study in our latest post:
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(And for those interested in the internal side of things, this study is designed to fulfill our 2024 OKR 2.2.)
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The two sources of water quality data we will be comparing for this study: Data generated from satellite imagery (see left for example) and data from our team’s water quality measurements at the farms (see right; considered the source of truth here).
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Farmer Program Updates
A few updates from our Alliance for Responsible Aquaculture over the last month:
- Testing programmatic improvements: We’re testing the following improvements:
- A new farm visit scheduling algorithm, where we adjust the visit frequency based on past rate of issues (as opposed to visiting each farm every month).
- A new method of measurement for dissolved oxygen (DO), the Winkler Method, in order to improve the accuracy of our measurements.
- (We expect to publish a blog post about these improvements in further detail in the coming two months.)
- New farms added: We recently began onboarding new farms again, and have thus far added 7 farms this quarter. As a reminder, ARA farms commit to a stocking density cap and to maintaining water quality in certain required ranges.
- Hiring bottleneck: One of our biggest bottlenecks at the moment is having sufficient staff—in particular, we’re seeking a new Field Manager to join the team in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh.
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FWI staff Sanjay, Vivek, and Nagaraju practicing the Winkler Method, considered the gold standard for measuring dissolved oxygen in water.
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Chinese Literature Review Now Published
As part of our efforts to improve the lives of fishes in China, we conducted a literature review to analyze Chinese papers with topics related to aquatic animal welfare. You can view the 111 articles and resources we identified below:
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As discussed in a recent post, we’re currently in a reassessment stage with our work in China. If you are interested in playing a part in our future work in China (even just by providing consultation!), feel free to reply to this email.
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Charity Entrepreneurship Visit
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Correction: In previous newsletters ( e.g.) we have sometimes listed conferences that seem to actually be scams. We apologize for this, and will be scrutinizing the events we share more closely in the future. Thank you to the individuals who pointed this out!
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Job Openings
- We’re hiring Telugu-speaking Indian nationals to join us in Andhra Pradesh as a Field Manager. This role will oversee on-site operations, establish and nurture connections with farmers, conduct field studies, and more.
- Various roles are open at Anima International (both remote and in Poland).
- The Centre for Effective Altruism is hiring a Head of Communications (remote).
- Crustacean Compassion is hiring a Campaign Coordinator in the UK.
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For many other open positions at pro-animal organizations, check out Animal Advocacy Careers' Job Board.
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Other News in Fish Welfare
- The ACE Movement Grants are now accepting applications! Anyone who has a promising project can apply—you don’t necessarily need to be affiliated with an organization. Deadline: March 18.
- New charity launches and then closes six month later aimed at improving fish welfare in the Mediterranean (also discussed in the opener).
- Octopus farming is set to become illegal in one US state as bill passes Washington senate.
- Traces of microplastic were discovered in the majority of milkfish samples collected from various fishponds in Mindanao, Philippines.
- The World Trade Organization has approved the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
- Vegan sushi is now offered in 4,500 supermarkets across North America.
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The barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) uses its tubular eyes to spot fish overhead. Credit: 2004 MBARI
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The barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) is a deep-sea fish known for its transparent head, through which its tubular eyes are visible. These eyes can rotate within the transparent shield, allowing the barreleye fish to look directly upward or forward while swimming horizontally. This unique adaptation helps them spot and capture prey, such as jellyfish and small crustaceans.
Additionally, the barreleye fish has green, barrel-shaped eyes that are adapted for low light conditions. These eyes are highly sensitive and can detect even the faintest traces of light, helping the fish navigate and locate food in the pitch-black depths where it resides.
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If you were forwarded this email, you can sign up for the FWI mailing list here.
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Lastly, a big shoutout and word of thanks to our volunteer Alyssa Bianca Chua of the Philippines for doing all of the formatting and some of the content for this month's newsletter!
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