Advancing Aquatic Animal Welfare Globally

As we reach the midway point of the start of 2025, we reflect on the previous 12 months, and the times FAI turned good ideas into real-world impact. By expanding our training programmes, launching our app and e-learning courses in new languages and teaming up with like-minded partners, we’re helping farmers put welfare at the heart of what they do. FAI’s COO Murilo Quintiliano explains how this results in healthier animals, better farms and progress towards a sustainable aquaculture sector.

Despite the climatic, economic and political challenges faced by those within the aquaculture sector across the world in 2024, the importance of welfare – and positive impact it has on the industry – has continued to grow.?

FAI’s focus has been to put welfare at the core of aquaculture decision making and management. From rolling out digital tools to providing wider access to learning materials, we’ve been making this vision happen.

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Harnessing the power of tech

Tech is the game-changer in FAI’s work.

The?Tilapia Welfare App?continues to impress, as we see increasing numbers of farmers assess and improve conditions for millions of fish using this mobile-based welfare assessment tool. In Egypt alone, the?Tilapia Welfare Project?has conducted over 3,000 welfare assessments using the app, touching the lives of more than 260 million tilapia. The app’s success shows how a few taps on a screen can lead to better management decisions, happier fish and more sustainable farming. For example, by highlighting the importance of maintaining good water quality and optimising feeding regimes, the app helps farmers improve fish health while reducing costs associated with feed and disease management.

For shrimp farmers in Asia, it’s a similar story.

FAI partnered with Thai-based HydroNeo to integrate welfare assessments into their?Smart Farm management app. The result is a tool tracking water quality and shrimp health in real time, making welfare improvements easier and actionable. Farmers are reporting fewer stressed shrimp, lower mortality rates, and up to 13% better productivity - a win for everyone involved.

2024 Tilapia and Shrimp Welfare Projects in numbers

• More than 5,500 enrolments in FAI Academy online welfare courses, empowering farmers, technicians, and aquaculture professionals worldwide.?
• Participants from nearly 1,800 farms using the FAI Tilapia Welfare App, demonstrating a widespread commitment to improving welfare practices.?
• 25 welfare-focused workshops delivered across the globe, bringing practical training, tools, and expertise directly to farmers and industry stakeholders.?

Getting hands-on

But it’s not all apps and data.

Education and capacity-building were integral to FAI’s work in 2024. We recognise aquaculture workers are vital to improving animal welfare so working directly with farmers has been a cornerstone of our approach.

We’ve helped train over 150 welfare educators in Egypt and over 1500 staff in Thailand and Vietnam, inspiring them to spread their knowledge throughout the country’s aquaculture sector. These educators are equipped to support other farmers implement best practices, ensuring the impact of our welfare work continues to grow.

In Honduras, we ran a series of shrimp welfare workshops for Grupo Granjas Marinas (GGM). Over two days, 68 farmers were trained in practical welfare techniques, from monitoring shrimp health to implementing changes that improve farm conditions.

And it’s not only about in-person training.

FAI’s growing e-learning modules in multiple languages mean farmers in all corners of the world can access cutting-edge information - whenever and wherever they need it.

China is the largest producer of grass carp with more than 5.8 million tonnes produced every year, so the launch of the Grass Carp Welfare Indicators course and Grass Carp Aquaculture Manual in Chinese provided a valuable boost to the wellbeing and performance of this important species.

At the end of 2024, we also released the FAI Tilapia Welfare App and Tilapia Welfare e-learning courses in Arabic. This will directly benefit over 1,000 farms involved in the ongoing Tilapia Welfare Project in Egypt, representing more than 10% of Egypt’s total tilapia production.

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Partnerships that make a difference

FAI’s success this year has been amplified through our partnerships. Strategic collaborations with governmental bodies, research institutions, and industry leaders, mean we’re setting new standards for fish welfare across diverse regions.?

In Egypt, we’ve partnered with Ethical Seafood Research (ESR), the Central Lab for Aquaculture Research (CLAR), Cairo University , and Kafr El-Sheikh University . Additionally, we have expanded our impact in Vietnam and Thailand with Bio Creative Labs Co., Ltd. , partnering with HydroNeo, Can Tho University , and the University of Stirling. These partnerships focus on incorporating FAI's tilapia and shrimp welfare e-learning courses and the Tilapia Welfare App into academic curricula, while also providing farmers with the tools and training to enhance fish health and productivity.

We’re also working with Spring Genetics in Miami on tilapia welfare, addressing challenges such as disease outbreaks and climate change. This partnership provides training and welfare tools to farmers across the Americas, promoting more sustainable aquaculture practices.

In Brazil, we have engaged with the newly formed Paraná State Aquaculture Association, Peixe Paraná. Paraná state is the number one state for tilapia production in Brazil, and as well as supporting better and fish welfare, we’re also helping the association with their environmental and social programmes. We are proud to be supporting the TILABRAS innovative tilapia production project in Brazil, by providing a welfare training programme for their staff and suppliers. Additionally, BTJ Aqua is expanding its use of our tilapia welfare protocol, with plans to scale-up their tilapia export. Further partnerships utilising our protocol include Peixe Vivo, who are leading the way in the tilapia hatchery sector and Superfish, who focus on juvenile production.

Through these collaborations, we are driving positive change in fish welfare and supporting the long-term success of global aquaculture.

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A five-step approach to aquatic animal welfare

FAI’s impact is rooted in a comprehensive framework that empowers farmers and stakeholders to prioritise and advance aquatic animal welfare. Our five-step approach guides every aspect of our work:

1. Train the right people. Farmers, vets, managers, regulators, consumers and investors must understand and speak the same welfare language.?
2. Assess, score and record welfare. Using scientific indicators, we help track animal welfare throughout production.
3. Act on the information. Insights from welfare assessments inform practical improvements in welfare practices.
4. Integrate welfare into a continuous management process. Welfare becomes part of an ongoing cycle of training, assessment, and action.
5. Report on animal welfare improvements. Make welfare improvements transparent by sharing welfare data and understandable information across the supply chain.

Our training programmes and digital tools are designed to support every step. Our free online courses, including FAI Academy’s fish and shrimp welfare modules, build knowledge among farmers and industry professionals. Our robust training management platform enables stakeholders across the supply chain to track training progress, manage certificates, and ensure a unified understanding of welfare practices. Moreover, the Tilapia Welfare App facilitates scoring, recording, and transparent sharing of welfare data, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions and demonstrate progress.

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Looking Ahead

It’s clear FAI’s mix of technology, training and collaboration is creating real change. But there’s more to do. Welfare isn’t an add-on. It’s central to everything - healthier animals, sustainable farming and meeting consumer expectations – and we’ll keep building in the years ahead.

With demand for ethical, high-quality seafood growing, we’re poised to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aquaculture welfare.