Fishes are sentient beings, meaning they have the capacity to experience fear, pain, distress, and a sense of well-being. New Zealand’s own Animal Welfare Act recognises fishes as sentient, however fishes are exploited in many ways and their
welfare often overlooked.
Evidence supporting fish intelligence is well established, with studies finding that fishes use tools, recognise other fish, and have sophisticated social structures. Fishes communicate with one another, and can learn from experience and observation.
Like all animals, fishes deserve to live freely and display their normal patterns of behaviour in their natural environment.
Fish farms are the underwater equivalent of battery cages, trapping countless fishes in cramped, barren enclosures, denied the space and freedom they need to thrive. These intelligent animals are forced to endure terrible suffering, treated as mere commodities rather than living beings deserving of care and respect.
Intensive fish farming cannot meet the basic welfare needs of fishes, breaching their legal rights under the Animal Welfare Act.
Good animal welfare relies on physical health, mental wellbeing ,and the ability to live in a natural environment, however fish farms compromise all these aspects of welfare. There are several issues associated with fish farms such overcrowding, poor water quality, rapid spread of disease, skin lesions and skeletal deformities, and high mortality rates.
See the FAQ section below for further information on welfare issues relating to fish farms.
Commercial fishing is a major animal rights issue, with wild fishes suffering slow, distressing deaths in huge numbers.
“Most commercially-caught wild fish, that are alive when landed, die either from being left to suffocate in air, or by a combination of suffocation and evisceration (disembowelment or gutting). Removing fish from water is highly stressful to them and, in most cases, violent escape attempts are made.” (FishCount.org.uk)
You can find out more about the impacts of commercial fishing on fish welfare in the FAQ section below.
The good news is that we have an internationally renowned Animal Welfare Act. Within this legal framework the Government is obliged to ensure the welfare needs of all animals are met, including fishes, which means they are protected by the same five freedoms of welfare as all other animals.
Supporting the Animal Welfare Act we have codes of welfare which are guidelines that animal-related industries are expected to abide by. However there is no code of welfare for farmed fishes, leaving them more vulnerable to mass exploitation and mistreatment.
Fishes confined to cages either at sea or on land are prevented from exhibiting their normal patterns of behaviour, directly breaching their legal rights under the Animal Welfare Act.
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill was passed into law and became the Fast-Track Approvals Act in December 2024. The Act allows Ministers to bypass standard democratic process and removes opportunities for the public to have a say in development proposals that are being fast-tracked – unless the development is on land you own or directly adjacent to land you own.
This Act could lead to even more animal cruelty by speeding up the approval process for large scale farming developments such as fish farms, feedlots, mud farms, and intensive indoor farms without consideration for the welfare and legal rights of animals. The list of projects initially approved for fast-tracking includes 14 potential fin fish farms. If these projects go ahead, countless more fishes will be forced to live in tragic conditions in underwater factory farms.
Scientific research has concluded that fishes do feel pain. Fishes have nociceptors (pain receptors) and exhibit behaviours indicating pain responses. (Source: Sentient Science)
“The scientific literature is quite clear. Anatomically, physiologically and biologically, the pain system in fish is virtually the same as in birds and mammals.”
Dr Donald Broom, Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare, Cambridge University
Most of the fish intensively farmed in New Zealand is salmon. The species farmed here is the non-native Chinook, also known as King Salmon. Salmon are reared in land-based hatcheries before being transferred to sea cages or fresh water farms, where they are fed a synthetic diet fortified with fishmeal and fish oil. Around 50 percent of salmon farmed in New Zealand is exported.
Fish species currently farmed in NZ:
The issues impacting farmed fishes include:
| Trawling The most common method used in New Zealand, trawling involves towing a bag-shaped net through the water, chasing fish until they are exhausted and captured. As fish move into the narrower part of the net, they panic and incur scale damage. In the closed end, the fish are compressed, leading to suffocation or heart failure.
Longlining
Purse seining
Dredging
Netting
Potting and Trapping |
In October 1999, New Zealand’s internationally renowned Animal Welfare Act was enshrined in law. The Act is based on the five freedoms of animal welfare and was updated in 2015 to recognise animals as sentient beings. You can find out more about the Animal Welfare Act here on our website.
Here are three simple ways you can help prevent fishes from living lives trapped in underwater factory farms
1. Call for a ban on fish farming
Join us in urging Animal Welfare Minister (Andrew Hoggard) and Minster for Oceans & Fisheries (Shane Jones) to ban fish farming and protect fishes from lives of suffering.
Click here to send an email
2. Take the fish-free challenge!
One of the easiest ways to help fishes is to remove them from your plate. Take our fish-free challenge and discover delicious alternatives.
Click here to learn more about the fish-free challenge
3. Sign the petition calling for a Commissioner for Animals
Join us in calling for independent representation for animals at parliamentary level. We need a Commissioner for Animals to ensure that all practices and policies for the care of Aotearoa’s animals are developed without bias and are consistent with their rights under the Animal Welfare Act.
Click here for the Commissioner for Animals petition
Right now, throughout Aotearoa, thousands of newborn calves are being taken from their mothers, trucked off in the cold, and killed. Branded as disposable by-products of the dairy industry, they are fragile, voiceless, and deserve so much more.
Your compassion today can create a future where every animal is valued.
