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Three RAS fish farm projects currently under assessment in France are met with pushback from several citizens’ opposition groups, supported by the French animal welfare NGO Welfarm, which is campaigning since last April to prevent the implementation of such hyper-intensive farms in France.
By Welfarm
Three farm projects planning to raise fish entirely in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are meeting a strong resistance in France. The animal welfare NGO Welfarm – which is celebrating its 30th-year anniversary this year – launched a dedicated campaign last April. This campaign aims at preventing three hyper-intensive Atlantic salmon farms from getting off the ground in France, which could happen as soon as in 2024.
These projects are currently being assessed in various spots around the country by the companies Smart Salmon (initially planned in Plouisy), Pure Salmon (in Verdon-sur-Mer) and Local Ocean (in Boulogne-sur-Mer). Welfarm supports the local opposition groups that have been active in each town for several years, raising awareness, and organizing protests.
Animal suffering
For Welfarm, farms that are using entirely RAS are a source of great suffering for fish because of several issues:
- Extreme densities, which are necessary to achieve a return on investments. Fish are denied the necessary space for their welfare;
- Risks of mass mortality events. The survival of salmon depends on the system’s equipments’ state of function. In 2021, in a RAS farm in Florida from the Atlantic Sapphire company, 500,000 salmon have died because of a failure in the filtration system. This is not an isolated case, as numerous such incidents have been documented by various press outlets;
- Tough living conditions. This farming system implies risks for the welfare and health of salmons, notably complications in controlling the water quality and its levels of pathogens (because of technical difficulties in using antibiotics if need be).
Therefore, Welfarm asks for a pure and simple ban to these projects of hyper-intensive salmon farms.
Millions of wild fish are killed to feed farmed salmons
Furthermore, salmons are carnivores, which implies the slaughter of millions of wild fish to produce Fish Meal and Fish Oil (FMFO) to feed them. Reduction fisheries entail numerous issues relating to animal welfare, the environment and social justice.
Request for a moratorium
Welfarm and the French ocean protection NGO Seastemik are asking for a moratorium to be put into place regarding new fish, crustacean and cephalopod farms for human consumption in which the totality of grow-out is conducted in a RAS farm. Banning the development of new such farms would encourage better animal welfare and would assist French aquaculture in meeting its sustainable development and climate transition goals.
To support this request towards French parliamentarians, both NGOs have published a report on this topic.
A petition to support this request is also available online. It has already collected more than 58 000 signatures since the launch of the campaign.
Welfarm continues to fight until a stop is put to these projects.
About Welfarm
Founded in 1994, Welfarm is an organization based in Metz, France, whose mission has been recognized as being of public utility. With 30,000 active members and donors, the organization’s purpose is to improve the welfare of farm animals at all stages of their lives (breeding, transport, slaughter). In this context, we pursue four main missions:
- Raise public awareness about farm animal welfare and encourage responsible consumption of animal products,
- Support the food industry, farmers and distributors in taking animal welfare more into account in their practices,
- Ensure compliance with applicable legislation and advocate for its evolution in favor of farm animals. In this respect, we exchange with institutional actors, whether at European, national or local level.
- Sheltering farm animals that have been abused at our sanctuary farm, La Hardonnerie (Vauquois, France).
Press Contact:
Gautier RIBEROLLES, Fish Animal Welfare Office at WELFARM (here in C/C)
