Humane Fish Slaughter

Compared with most other agricultural industries in South Africa, the farmed fish industry is in its infancy. With no legal framework yet in place, fish farmers and animal welfare organisations are at loggerheads about how to kill fish with the least suffering. Gerhard Uys reports.

- Gerhard Uys

The slaughtering of farmed fish is not officially regulated in South Africa. According to the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), some local fish farmers employ cruel methods, and they should rather follow the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) guidelines.

However, local representatives of many industry organisations argue that they have the expertise and that neither government, with its proposed Aquaculture Development Bill, nor the NSPCA has the know-how to make decisions on fish welfare.

THE DEBATE

Nicholas James, the tilapia representative of the Aquaculture Association of Southern Africa (AASA), says the tilapia farming sector operates under a recognised set of norms and standards drawn up by the Tilapia Aquaculture Association of South Africa.

James, who breeds tilapia in the Eastern Cape, says there is no international consensus on how to humanely kill fish for human consumption. Each country has its own methods, and public perception also plays a role.

“For example, over-sedating gives rise to toxicity issues in the public’s eyes. Clubbing the head comes across as brutal, and dropping live fish into iced water also seems brutal to some consumers. Asphyxiation, when a fish is removed from water, is the most humane method; the fish is simply overcome by lack of oxygen. We catch our slaughter fish and place them in a clean plastic crate until movement stops, before processing them.”

He explains that slaughter and stocking rates fall outside the jurisdiction of legislation, and breeders do not welcome government intervention.