Year: 2025
Grant: £495
Kingsley Ovie Awhefeada
Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria
Aquaculture is a growing sector in Nigeria, contributing to food security, livelihoods, and rural employment. However, the welfare of farmed fish is frequently overlooked. Fish, like other vertebrates, experience pain, stress, and discomfort during poor handling, especially at harvest, during transport, or due to poor water conditions. Many small-scale farmers and students in Nigeria lack training in humane handling or an understanding of fish welfare science. In the Niger Delta, where aquaculture is expanding rapidly, poor handling practices such as suffocating fish in buckets, overcrowding during transport, and rough netting can lead to injuries, stress, high mortality, and reduced product quality. Furthermore, students graduating from fisheries and aquaculture programmes often lack exposure to the animal welfare dimensions of fish production. The project aims to fill this gap through an outreach and education initiative for fish farmers and fisheries students, promoting best practices for humane fish handling, thereby improving animal welfare outcomes and ethical awareness.
This project aims to raise awareness of fish handling welfare among students, Staff and small-scale aquaculture farmers in Delta State. Through training workshops and distribution of humane handling leaflets, we aim to promote better fish welfare practices in the region.
The project is expected to improve the welfare of thousands of farmed fish annually by promoting humane handling during harvesting and transportation. Farmers and students will be empowered with knowledge, leading to long-term behavioural change and more ethical practices.