I definitely agree that organizations should pivot as they learn about how an intervention works in practice. I think the errors I refer to are more things of the type: a cursory glance from an animal welfare scientist could have told you your research was missing key considerations, and the charity would have not wasted time on the recommended intervention. These seem cheap to prevent and preventable issues.
Thanks for clarifying! We always have an expert view section in the report, and often consult animal science specialists, but it is possible we missed something. Could you tell me where specifically we made a mistake regarding animal science that could have changed the recommendation? I want to look into it, to fact-check it, and if it is right not to make this mistake in the future.
It looks like the report has been taken down, but I think the degree to which you pushed dissolved water oxygenation for fish welfare before launching Fish Welfare Initiative is an especially strong example of this. At the time I heard skepticism from many experts. You can see a reference to that report in this post. This report is another example of something that I think would not have passed any kind of rigorous external review.
Thanks! Can you tell me more about why you think improving dissolved oxygen is not a good idea? I still consider poor dissolved oxygen to be a major welfare problem for fish in the setting where the charity is expected to operate, and improving it through various means (assuming we also keep stocking density constant or decreasing it) would be good for their welfare. This has been validated in the field by FWI in this assessment and studied by others, so I’m a bit surprised. Unless you are referring to specific interventions to improve dissolved oxygen, of which I have high uncertainty about their cost-effectiveness.
And about the report you link, I broadly agree and have written about it below.
I definitely agree that organizations should pivot as they learn about how an intervention works in practice. I think the errors I refer to are more things of the type: a cursory glance from an animal welfare scientist could have told you your research was missing key considerations, and the charity would have not wasted time on the recommended intervention. These seem cheap to prevent and preventable issues.
Thanks for clarifying! We always have an expert view section in the report, and often consult animal science specialists, but it is possible we missed something. Could you tell me where specifically we made a mistake regarding animal science that could have changed the recommendation? I want to look into it, to fact-check it, and if it is right not to make this mistake in the future.
It looks like the report has been taken down, but I think the degree to which you pushed dissolved water oxygenation for fish welfare before launching Fish Welfare Initiative is an especially strong example of this. At the time I heard skepticism from many experts. You can see a reference to that report in this post. This report is another example of something that I think would not have passed any kind of rigorous external review.
Thanks! Can you tell me more about why you think improving dissolved oxygen is not a good idea? I still consider poor dissolved oxygen to be a major welfare problem for fish in the setting where the charity is expected to operate, and improving it through various means (assuming we also keep stocking density constant or decreasing it) would be good for their welfare. This has been validated in the field by FWI in this assessment and studied by others, so I’m a bit surprised. Unless you are referring to specific interventions to improve dissolved oxygen, of which I have high uncertainty about their cost-effectiveness.
And about the report you link, I broadly agree and have written about it below.