Scottish Animal Welfare Commission: welfare of cleaner fish used in the Scottish salmon industry - report

1. Scope

Sea louse infestation is a major health, welfare and production issue for the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) industry. This is a major problem affecting many countries farming Atlantic salmon, however, our focus will be on the effect on the farming of Atlantic salmon in Scotland in particular. In recent years, the use of ‘cleaner fish’ (fish species which have naturally occurring specialised feeding behaviours where they remove parasites from the gills and skin of other fish) has become an established part of the ‘toolbox’ of methods used by the industry to control numbers of sea lice. However, the welfare of the cleaner fish, as a sentient animal managed within the salmon farming industry, needs to be considered in its own right in addition to the welfare of the salmon. Therefore, the aim of this report is to consider the welfare of the two main species of cleaner fish (ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) and lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) used in the Scottish Atlantic salmon industry.