This was super interesting, thank you so much for your work on this! In general I really admire RP’s foundational work on shrimp welfare. The fact that RP, CE and now Shrimp Welfare Project have put in so much high quality work into this area makes me feel proud of the broader EA ecosystem / feels like a real success story. Personally speaking, RP and SWP’s work on shrimp welfare has made me care significantly more about this cause area.
I had some thoughts while digging through your models and methodology:
1/ On acetes japonicus:
Wow, if I naively divide up the total number of acetes japonicus from this spreadsheet with your median 27T total shrimp killed per year figure, I think this implies A. japonicus might make up 70% of the raw number of shrimp killed via farming per year?
That seems huge! FWIW I think maybe this could be one of the headline results, since it took me some time to realize this.
Do you or others have thoughts on the relative sentience or moral weights of A. japonicus in particular? Sounds like SWP are thinking about this a bit?
This very nitpicky, but I’m surprised how low precision the generic estimated mean weight in grams estimates you’re using to go from tonnage of A. japonicus → number of individuals (0.005 to 0.07g) — since these account for so many individuals, I’m curious if there are ways to refine this?
2/ On landed catches:
The FAO global capture database refers to the total retained catches, which includes “landed” and “non-landed” catches (FAO-Fisheries Division, personal communication, May 27, 2021). That is, it includes the mass of animals that are captured, whether they arrive at the port (“landed”) or not.
However, in most cases, countries are only able to report the quantities of landed catches (FAO-Fisheries Division, personal communication, May 27, 2021). That is, it is likely that FAO’s Fishery Statistical Collections on Global Capture Production does not contain data about shrimp (and other animals) that were captured, killed, and used prior to landing, either because they were consumed on board, or used as bait. Similarly, captured shrimp that got spoiled onboard are typically dumped before landing, and therefore, are not reported either. Lastly, landed weight data do not account for shrimp that are unintentionally lost when handling at sea or when landing.
Did you try to make any adjustments for countries that don’t report non-landed catch weights, or otherwise bound your uncertainty over this? For instance I could imagine finding the average landed to non-landed catch ratio amongst all regions where you have the data, and bump up total tonnage stats by that percentage for countries where you only have the landed catch weights.
(Or at least, it would be interesting to know if the landed to non-landed tonnage ratio is more like 2:1, 10:1, 1000:1, etc.)
On a similar note, I’m not sure if “total catch weight” includes individuals caught as part of bycatch?
This was super interesting, thank you so much for your work on this! In general I really admire RP’s foundational work on shrimp welfare. The fact that RP, CE and now Shrimp Welfare Project have put in so much high quality work into this area makes me feel proud of the broader EA ecosystem / feels like a real success story. Personally speaking, RP and SWP’s work on shrimp welfare has made me care significantly more about this cause area.
I had some thoughts while digging through your models and methodology:
1/ On acetes japonicus:
Wow, if I naively divide up the total number of acetes japonicus from this spreadsheet with your median 27T total shrimp killed per year figure, I think this implies A. japonicus might make up 70% of the raw number of shrimp killed via farming per year?
That seems huge! FWIW I think maybe this could be one of the headline results, since it took me some time to realize this.
Do you or others have thoughts on the relative sentience or moral weights of A. japonicus in particular? Sounds like SWP are thinking about this a bit?
This very nitpicky, but I’m surprised how low precision the generic estimated mean weight in grams estimates you’re using to go from tonnage of A. japonicus → number of individuals (0.005 to 0.07g) — since these account for so many individuals, I’m curious if there are ways to refine this?
2/ On landed catches:
Did you try to make any adjustments for countries that don’t report non-landed catch weights, or otherwise bound your uncertainty over this? For instance I could imagine finding the average landed to non-landed catch ratio amongst all regions where you have the data, and bump up total tonnage stats by that percentage for countries where you only have the landed catch weights.
(Or at least, it would be interesting to know if the landed to non-landed tonnage ratio is more like 2:1, 10:1, 1000:1, etc.)
On a similar note, I’m not sure if “total catch weight” includes individuals caught as part of bycatch?