Hi – thanks for your comment.
You’re correct in that we are prioritizing for the greatest number of fish on farms rather than the total tonnage produced. Our claim that Greece is the largest producer in the EU (and the 15th largest in the world) is based on estimates (using the FAO data linked) of the number of fish alive on farms in each country at any given time. This has to do with the total farmed as well as their lifespans and expected mortality rates on farms pre-slaughter.
We generally prioritize farmed fish as you can impact their whole lives, whereas for wild-caught fish, you can only impact the end of their lives. However, if the new charity chooses to focus on humane slaughter, then there could be scope to focus on both farmed and wild-caught fish. Note, however, that protections for wild-caught fish, to the best of my knowledge, don’t exist in legislation anywhere yet, so we might not expect this to be very tractable. Overall, at least in the short-term, we would recommend that a new org should focus on farmed fish and should try to push for the inclusion of stocking density and water quality parameters as well as humane slaughter in any ask where possible. Still, we could see that the new org chooses to only focus on slaughter – at least at first – as this seems to be what the rest of the movement is likely to focus on, and there could be benefits from all being on the same page and asking for the same thing.
Hey Moritz! Thanks for your question and sorry for my belated response, I was on leave last week and I am the author of the relevant report so the team left the question for me to answer.
Yeah your suggestion is basically exactly right. We think that keel bone fractures are a very important welfare issue that needs to be tackled in cage-free hens and are still very excited about someone working in this space despite the difficulties that Healthier Hens have faced. We think that this new approach we have recommended has promise as it takes a different angle (which doesn’t focus on feed fortification) which allows farmers to implement whatever intervention works best on their farm* to reduce KBFs to the required level (≤25% prevalence in the flock). We think that not being as prescriptive here will give farms the flexibility to implement what works for them which will hopefully see more success than choosing a specific intervention that everyone has to implement. I think that this will also help to increase the evidence base on what works to reduce KBF as farmers implement different combinations of interventions to reduce KBF to the required level.
* We do also have some interventions that we are excited about that we could help farmers to implement if they needed guidance: Incorporating structural features with impact-absorbing padding to increase exercising behavior that strengthens cortical bone and mineralisation, and to reduce impact during collisions while trying to occupy perching spots or during falls; Adding ramps to facilitate safer access to perching areas; and maybe Delaying the onset of lay from 18 weeks to 22 weeks.