Fish Welfare

Introduction and learning outcomes:

This course on Fish Welfare provides a systematic and holistic education and guidance to Aquaculture Fish Welfare. Course participants are educated on the need for fish welfare, global best practices of fish welfare and how to adapt these practices to local fish farm settings and fish species This Fish Welfare course closely mirrors the Aquaculture Fish Welfare Training Guide and participants are strongly encouraged to refer to this for further reading and information. 

Note: While this course focuses on the Nigeria context and farmed fish species in the country, subsequent versions will be developed and published for different countries in Africa and their respective ubiquitous fish species. This would be done in collaboration with the animal and fish welfare stakeholders based in the country of interest.

Facilitators:

Madam Foluke O. Areola – Fisheries and Aquaculture Consultant

Foluke Areola is a seasoned fisheries and aquaculture professional, consultant, administrator, facilitator, mentor, and researcher with over 40 years of experience in the sector. She was the first Federal Director of Fisheries Quarantine in Nigeria and is also the first female Federal Director of Fisheries & Aquaculture (ai) in Nigeria. In both positions respectively, she successfully managed and supervised 250 department personnel. Since her retirement fro civil services, she has been leading a consultancy firm employing her wealth of experience, skills and knowledge acquired.

She is a distinguished fellow of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON), and the first female National President of the association. For the past 40 years, she has provided technical guidance to government institutions, policy makers, international development organizations, non-governmental organizations and thousands of private sector farmers and institutions in in fisheries and aquaculture research, policy advocacy, and development. These include but are not limited to the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Lagos State University Hatchery/ Fish Farm, African Union Inter-African Bureau of Animal Resources (AU-IBAR). 

She has participated in high-level national, regional, continental, and global initiatives, provided varied trainings in Fisheries and Aquaculture, Quality Control, Quarantine, Monitoring and Evaluation, Value Chain Development, Policy, Governance, Agribusiness, Trade Facilitation, and Fisheries Policy formulation and implementation at both the regulatory and developmental levels. Madam Areola is also a seasoned writer and researcher, and her publications comprise 11 book chapters, 4 peer-reviewed publications, 6 newsletters and 8 academic conference presentations. 

Madam Areola is an active member of 11 international and 13 national professional societies and holds positions as Board Member, Fellow, Patron, Matron, Governing Council member or play very prominent roles. She is passionate about local and global economic development and growth, and justice, and serves as a member of the customary court of the Lagos State judiciary commission in Nigeria 

Catalina Lopez Salazar – Aquatic Life Institute (ALI)

Catalina Lopez is the Director of the Aquatic Animal Alliance at the Aquatic Life Institute where she oversees a coalition of organizations working around the globe to reduce the suffering of aquatic animals exploited in the food system. She is a veterinarian from Colombia currently living in Mexico City. Previously, she led the corporate engagement team at Mercy For Animals Latin America. The organization – Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) – was founded in 2019 with the aim of improving aquatic animal welfare on a global scale in both aquaculture and wild capture fisheries globally. ALI works with seafood certifiers to define high-welfare products, and unite nonprofits, academic institutions, industry stakeholders, and the public to strengthen our legislative pursuits.

Samuel Ogah

Samuel Ogah is a Fisheries and Aquaculture Professional with many years of experience in academic research and development with a strong background in sustainable aquaculture and welfare. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture from the University of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria and a Master’s degree in Fisheries Science from the Universiti Putra Malaysia. 

He has developed expertise in adopting fish culture systems to ensure sustainability and welfare. In 2013, Samuel began his career in Development working with Heritage Microcredits where the focus was on giving short and medium term collateral-free loans to small scale farmers and businesses. He rose through the ranks to the position of a Branch head where he pioneered the Ilorin branch of the bank till 2015.

Samuel joined the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Federal University Gashua as an Assistant Lecturer in 2015. His research focus areas are fish nutrition, gender in aquaculture, fish welfare in arid regions, sustainable culture systems like RAS, aquaponics and biofloc. He has published over 15 articles in peer reviewed national and international journals from his research findings, also presenting his findings at national and international conferences. Samuel is a member of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria, Malaysian Fisheries Society and the Asian Fisheries Society. 

His work in fish welfare advocacy was accelerated when he joined the One Health and Development Initiative (OHDI) in 2022. As the team lead for animal welfare, He provided supervision for national projects in fish and hen welfare. He has also served as a facilitator in a fish welfare training for farmers in Nigeria and has attended many local and international conferences on fish welfare.

Samuel is passionate about the welfare of animals and the use of improvised local alternatives to solving animal welfare challenges in developing countries. He is an active member of the Open Wing Alliance and Effective Altruism. He is a speaker at the One Health Club an arm of OHDI that provides mentorship and training to University students interested in One Health.

In his free time, Samuel enjoys volunteering at local youth clubs for the purpose of mentoring young One Health advocates and researchers. 

Claudia Millan – Equalia ONG

Claudia is a Marine Scientist passionate about marine sciences, animal welfare and the environment. She has a degree in Marine Sciences and Masters in Aquaculture and Coastaland Marine Management. Over the course of her career, she has developed professional  experience, skills and core technical capacities as a Fish Welfare Specialist for both Spanish and English-speaking countries. Her organization, Equalia is a Spanish-based animal welfare organisation dedicated to improving the living conditions of animals destined for consumption with the worst welfare standards. Its mission is to reach agreements with companies, institutions and stakeholders that positively affect the most significant number of animals. The organization carries out this mission based on the vision of a world in which intensive farming gives way to food production models that respect animal welfare.

Kikiope Oluwarore (DVM, MSc) – One Health and Development Initiative (OHDI)

Dr. Kikiope is a veterinarian and Founder of One Health and Development Initiative (OHDI) with interrelated experience in One Health and Animal Welfare programming, research, and nonprofit management. She acquired her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria; is a Commonwealth Scholar alumnus, completing her M.Sc. degree in Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and is currently engaged in a PhD program at the University of Abuja, Nigeria. She is also an alumnus of the 2021 Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation program.

She currently consults for the World Health Organization (WHO) and in the course of her work, has consulted/managed projects at the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), Animal Advocacy Africa (AAA), Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), Education as a Vaccine (EVA), CYFI of United States Consulate, and Forward Africa.

Gautier Riberolles and Priscilla Durbant – Welfarm

Welfarm is a French NGO which has been working to improve the welfare of farmed animals for more than 25 years. Pricillia Durbant has a background in animal physiology (M.Sc) and Gautier Riberolles has a background in animal behaviour (M.Sc). Both work at Welfarm as farm animal welfare officers. They have co-authored a report about humane slaughter in European fish farming.

Stefan Johnigk and Marianne Boehm-Beck – Aquaculture Welfare Standards Initiative (AWSI)

Aquaculture Welfare Standards Initiative (AWSI) is an organization based in Germany that works to initiate and lead an intersectoral consultation process for the development, formulation and international implementation of aquatic animal welfare standards.