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119 Fishing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Fishing is a timeless pastime that has been enjoyed by people all over the world for generations. Whether you are an experienced angler or a beginner looking to learn more about the sport, there are countless topics related to fishing that can be explored through essays. In this article, we will provide you with 119 fishing essay topic ideas and examples to help inspire your writing.

• The history of fishing
• The benefits of fishing for mental health
• Fishing techniques for beginners
• The impact of climate change on fishing
• The best fishing spots around the world
• The cultural significance of fishing in different countries
• How to properly care for and clean fishing equipment
• The role of fishing in conservation efforts
• The ethics of catch and release fishing
• The economic impact of the fishing industry
• The health benefits of eating fish
• The importance of fishing regulations and limits
• The art of fly fishing
• The dangers of overfishing
• The role of technology in modern fishing practices
• The best bait for different types of fish
• The psychology of fishing: why do people enjoy it?
• The impact of pollution on fish populations
• The challenges facing small-scale fishermen
• The history of commercial fishing
• The impact of invasive species on native fish populations
• The benefits of fishing for children
• The best fishing gear for different types of fishing
• The role of fishing in sustainable food systems
• The connection between fishing and spirituality
• The impact of dams and other man-made structures on fish habitats
• The cultural traditions of fishing in indigenous communities
• The future of fishing: how will it evolve in the coming years?
• The benefits of fishing as a form of exercise
• The impact of recreational fishing on fish populations
• The best fishing destinations for a family vacation
• The environmental benefits of fishing
• The role of fishing in local economies
• The impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems
• The best fishing techniques for catching different types of fish
• The benefits of fishing for stress relief
• The impact of commercial fishing on local communities
• The role of fishing in sustainable seafood sourcing
• The best fishing apps for anglers
• The impact of climate change on fish migration patterns
• The benefits of catch and release fishing
• The impact of fishing on coral reefs
• The best fishing techniques for catching trophy fish
• The benefits of fishing for physical health
• The impact of fishing on endangered species
• The role of fishing in wildlife conservation efforts
• The best fishing destinations for a solo trip
• The impact of fishing on river ecosystems
• The benefits of fishing for team building
• The impact of fishing on water quality
• The role of fishing in disaster relief efforts
• The best fishing techniques for catching fish in different seasons
• The benefits of fishing for community engagement
• The impact of fishing on coastal communities
• The role of fishing in traditional medicine
• The best fishing destinations for a romantic getaway
• The impact of fishing on aquatic plants
• The benefits of fishing for personal growth
• The role of fishing in cultural celebrations
• The impact of fishing on bird populations
• The best fishing techniques for catching fish in different weather conditions
• The benefits of fishing for team bonding
• The impact of fishing on aquatic insects
• The role of fishing in disaster preparedness
• The best fishing destinations for a weekend getaway
• The impact of fishing on freshwater ecosystems
• The benefits of fishing for mental resilience
• The role of fishing in historical events
• The impact of fishing on amphibian populations
• The best fishing techniques for catching fish in different types of water bodies
• The benefits of fishing for personal fulfillment
• The impact of fishing on reptile populations
• The role of fishing in religious ceremonies
• The impact of fishing on mammal populations
• The best fishing destinations for a budget-friendly trip
• The benefits of fishing for social connection
• The impact of fishing on invertebrate populations
• The role of fishing in cultural preservation
• The impact of fishing on plant populations
• The best fishing techniques for catching fish in different types of habitats
• The benefits of fishing for environmental awareness
• The role of fishing in historical preservation
• The impact of fishing on aquatic ecosystems
• The benefits of fishing for mental well-being
• The impact of fishing on aquatic food chains
• The role of fishing in community building
• The impact of fishing on aquatic biodiversity

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Lifestyle & Interests — Fishing

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Fishing as a livelihood, a way of life, or just a job: considering the complexity of “fishing communities” in research and policy

• Original Research
• Published: 10 August 2022
• Volume 33 , pages 265–280, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Claudia E. Delgado-Ramírez 1 ,
• Yoshitaka Ota 2 &
• Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4132-5317 3  

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In the scientific literature on fisheries, the concept of community is often used broadly to indicate a place-based group whose members are dedicated to fisheries and have relatively homogeneous economic, social, and cultural interests. However, this categorical perspective to scope a “fishing community” is not necessarily an insightful approach to explore diverse social relationships with the marine environment, fishwork, and management in a practical context, and risks mismatches with science-based recommendations for management and policy. Drawing from ethnographic work, we highlight different historical and cultural dynamics from four case studies from fisheries in northwest Mexico. We identify key factors that help contextualize fishwork relationships, related to the importance of fishing practices on worldviews, daily routines, and income. These are used to derive three configurations (livelihood, way of life, and job) that describe and give analytical content to the notion of these fishing communities. Our use of a typology is not intended to generalize them or provide universal categories, but rather to convey to a broad range of fisheries scientists the importance of considering social contexts in the places in which we work and learn, and a set of guiding questions that may help in this regard. Contextualizing the importance of historical and cultural factors in scoping community units beyond occupational or geographical characteristics is essential for identifying and addressing (in)equitable processes and outcomes in fisheries sectors, research, and management.

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Data availability.

The information generated and analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from the Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Center at EarthLab, University of Washington. We thank Dr. Pedro González-Espinosa for his help preparing Figure 1 .

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Claudia E. Delgado-Ramírez

Ocean Nexus, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

Yoshitaka Ota

Ocean Nexus, School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor

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All authors contributed to the Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, and Writing of the Original and Revised Manuscript; CEDR performed the Investigation; AMCM and YO contributed to Supervision, Project Administration, and Funding Acquisition.

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Delgado-Ramírez, C.E., Ota, Y. & Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M. Fishing as a livelihood, a way of life, or just a job: considering the complexity of “fishing communities” in research and policy. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 33 , 265–280 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09721-y

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Published : 10 August 2022

Issue Date : March 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-022-09721-y

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Writing Prompts about Fishing

• 🗃️ Essay topics
• ❓ Research questions
• 📝 Topic sentences
• 🪝 Essay hooks
• 📑 Thesis statements
• 🔀 Hypothesis examples
• 🧐 Personal statements

🔗 References

🗃️ essay topics about fishing.

• The benefits of fishing for mental health and stress reduction.
• The impact of climate change on fishing communities.
• The ethics of catch and release fishing.
• The economic importance of recreational fishing.
• The history of fly fishing and its evolution.
• The impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems.
• The role of fishing in traditional cultural practices.
• Fishing industry: the fight for gender equality.
• The impact of fishing regulations on the fishing industry.
• The benefits of fishing for physical health and wellness.
• The future of sustainable fishing practices.
• The science of fish behavior and how it informs fishing techniques.
• The cultural significance of fishing in different regions of the world.
• The importance of fishing as a means of food security.
• The impact of commercial fishing on the environment.
• The role of fishing in coastal tourism.
• The evolution of fishing gear and technology.
• The benefits and challenges of freshwater vs. saltwater fishing.
• The role of fishing in conservation efforts.
• The cultural and environmental impact of sport fishing tournaments.
• The impact of fishing on endangered species and biodiversity conservation.

❓ Fishing Essay Questions

• How does climate change affect fish populations and fishing communities?
• What is the impact of commercial fishing on the marine ecosystem?
• How can fishing regulations be designed to balance economic and environmental interests?
• What are the benefits of catch-and-release fishing for fish populations and ecosystems?
• What are the best practices for sustainable fishing in different regions of the world?
• How do fishing technologies, such as fish finders and underwater cameras, affect fish behavior and fishing success rates?
• What role does fishing play in food security for coastal communities?
• What are the economic benefits of recreational fishing for local communities?
• What is the relationship between fish consumption and human health?
• How can fishery management be improved to ensure the survival of endangered species and protect biodiversity?
• What are the ethical considerations involved in sport fishing tournaments?
• How does fishing culture vary across different regions of the world?
• How can traditional fishing practices be preserved and integrated into modern fishing practices?
• What impact do fishing regulations have on the cultural practices of fishing communities?
• How can fishing tourism be managed to balance economic development with environmental protection?

📝 Fishing Topic Sentences

• Fishing is not just a sport or hobby, but a valuable source of livelihood for millions of people around the world.
• The health benefits of fishing are numerous, ranging from stress reduction to physical exercise to improved nutrition.
• The impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems is a pressing concern that requires global cooperation and sustainable management practices.

🪝 Hooks for Fishing Paper

📍 anecdotal hooks on fishing for essay.

• I once caught a fish so big, I had to use my entire body weight to reel it in. I’m pretty sure the fish won the battle, but my friends still claim it was a tree branch.
• As a kid, my dad took me on my first fishing trip and I was so excited to finally catch something. I ended up catching a rubber boot and a plastic bottle. My dad said it was a good haul for environmental clean-up.

📍 Autobiography Hooks for Essay on Fishing

• As a young child, I would spend countless hours fishing with my grandfather, and those memories of time spent on the water continue to inspire my love for the sport today.
• From the first time I cast my line into the water as a teenager, I knew that fishing would become a lifelong passion and a source of solace during the most challenging moments of my life.

📍 Statistical Hooks on Fishing

• According to a recent study, the recreational fishing industry generates over $125 billion in economic output and supports over 800,000 jobs in the United States alone.
• Overfishing has led to a decline in global fish stocks, with approximately 34.2% of fish stocks being overexploited, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

📑 Top Fishing Thesis Statements

✔️ argumentative thesis examples about fishing.

• Despite its popularity as a leisure activity, recreational fishing can have negative impacts on fish populations and ecosystems and therefore should be subject to strict regulations to ensure sustainability.
• The global fishing industry has a responsibility to prioritize sustainable practices and conservation efforts in order to protect the health of our oceans and ensure the survival of fish species for generations to come.

✔️ Analytical Thesis on Fishing

• Although fishing can be a sustainable source of food and income for communities, overfishing and irresponsible fishing practices have led to the depletion of fish populations and the destruction of marine ecosystems, necessitating more responsible and sustainable management practices.
• The cultural significance of fishing varies across regions and communities, and understanding these cultural practices is crucial for designing effective fishing regulations and sustainable management practices that balance economic, environmental, and social interests.

✔️ Informative Thesis Samples about Fishing

• Recreational fishing is not only a popular pastime, but also an important source of economic growth and employment, and its sustainable management is crucial for the future of the industry.
• Overfishing is a pressing global issue that has led to the decline of fish populations and disrupted marine ecosystems, and effective conservation measures and sustainable fishing practices are necessary to mitigate its impact.

🔀 Fishing Hypothesis Examples

• Increased fishing regulations, such as size limits and catch quotas, will lead to improved fish populations and more sustainable fishing practices.
• The use of artificial lures in fishing will result in higher catch rates compared to natural bait due to their ability to mimic real prey and attract fish more effectively.

🔂 Null & Alternative Hypothesis about Fishing

• Null hypothesis: There is no significant difference in the catch rates of fish between anglers who use live bait and those who use artificial lures.
• Alternative hypothesis: Anglers who use artificial lures catch more fish than those who use live bait.

🧐 Examples of Personal Statement on Fishing

• Fishing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It’s not just about catching fish, but also about being in nature and enjoying the peace and quiet. I’ve learned patience, respect for the environment, and the importance of sustainable practices through my experiences with fishing.
• Growing up near the coast, fishing has been an integral part of my life and family traditions. It has instilled in me a deep respect for the environment and a passion for sustainability, as I have witnessed the impact of overfishing on the marine ecosystem.
• The Fishing Industry as a Complex System
• The cross-national association between institutional imbalance, national culture, and illegal fishing
• Cruelty to Human and Nonhuman Animals in the Wild-Caught Fishing Industry
• Sustainability: A flawed concept for fisheries management?
• Safety risk assessment of fishing schemes

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Current advances and challenges in fisheries and aquaculture science.

Conflicts of Interest

• Cordova-de la Cruz, S.; Riesco, M.; Martínez-Bautista, G.; Calzada-Ruiz, D.; Martínez-Burguete, T.; Peña-Marín, E.; Álvarez-Gonzalez, C.; Fernández, I. Larval Development in Tropical Gar ( Atractosteus tropicus ) Is Dependent on the Embryonic Thermal Regime: Ecological Implications under a Climate Change Context. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 16. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• McBaine, K.; Hallerman, E.; Angermeier, P. Direct and Molecular Observation of Movement and Reproduction by Candy Darter, Etheostoma osburni , an Endangered Benthic Stream Fish in Virginia, USA. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 30. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sikora, L.; Mrnak, J.; Henningsen, R.; Van De Hey, J.; Sass, G. Demographic and Life History Characteristics of Black Bullheads Ameiurus melas in a North Temperate USA Lake. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 21. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Mallet, D.; Olivry, M.; Ighiouer, S.; Kulbicki, M.; Wantiez, L. Nondestructive Monitoring of Soft Bottom Fish and Habitats Using a Standardized, Remote and Unbaited 360° Video Sampling Method. Fishes 2021 , 6 , 50. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Miqueleiz, I.; Miranda, R.; Ariño, A.; Ojea, E. Conservation-Status Gaps for Marine Top-Fished Commercial Species. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 2. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rodríguez-Viera, L.; Martí, I.; Martínez, R.; Perera, E.; Estrada, M.; Mancera, J.; Martos-Sitcha, J. Feed Supplementation with the GHRP-6 Peptide, a Ghrelin Analog, Improves Feed Intake, Growth Performance and Aerobic Metabolism in the Gilthead Sea Bream Sparus aurata . Fishes 2022 , 7 , 31. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Basto-Silva, C.; García-Meilán, I.; Couto, A.; Serra, C.; Enes, P.; Oliva-Teles, A.; Capilla, E.; Guerreiro, I. Effect of Dietary Plant Feedstuffs and Protein/Carbohydrate Ratio on Gilthead Seabream ( Sparus aurata ) Gut Health and Functionality. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 59. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Martínez-Antequera, F.; Barranco-Ávila, I.; Martos-Sitcha, J.; Moyano, F. Solid-State Hydrolysis (SSH) Improves the Nutritional Value of Plant Ingredients in the Diet of Mugil cephalus . Fishes 2022 , 7 , 4. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Batista, R.; Nobrega, R.; Schleder, D.; Pettigrew, J.; Fracalossi, D. Aurantiochytrium sp. Meal Improved Body Fatty Acid Profile and Morphophysiology in Nile Tilapia Reared at Low Temperature. Fishes 2021 , 6 , 45. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Safari, O.; Sarkheil, M.; Shahsavani, D.; Paolucci, M. Effects of Single or Combined Administration of Dietary Synbiotic and Sodium Propionate on Humoral Immunity and Oxidative Defense, Digestive Enzymes and Growth Performances of African Cichlid (Labidochromis lividus ) Challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila . Fishes 2021 , 6 , 63. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]

Share and Cite

Hallerman, E.; Esteban, M.A.; Baldisserotto, B. Current Advances and Challenges in Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. Fishes 2022 , 7 , 87. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7020087

Hallerman E, Esteban MA, Baldisserotto B. Current Advances and Challenges in Fisheries and Aquaculture Science. Fishes . 2022; 7(2):87. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7020087

Hallerman, Eric, Maria Angeles Esteban, and Bernardo Baldisserotto. 2022. "Current Advances and Challenges in Fisheries and Aquaculture Science" Fishes 7, no. 2: 87. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7020087

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Fishing - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Fishing is an outdoor activity that involves catching fish using different techniques such as angling, netting, trapping or hand gathering. It can be done in various water bodies such as rivers, lakes, oceans, and even ponds. Fishing can be a leisure activity, a sport, or a means of livelihood. It is also a popular pastime that is enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. Fishing requires patience, concentration, and knowledge about different fish species, their habitats, and feeding habits. It is also a way of connecting with nature, enjoying the peacefulness of the environment and spending time outdoors.

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“But It’s Just a Fish”: Understanding the Challenges of Applying the 3Rs in Laboratory Aquariums in the UK

Simple summary.

Fish are widely used in research and some species have become important model organisms in the biosciences. Despite their importance, their welfare has usually been less of a focus of public interest or regulatory attention than the welfare of more familiar terrestrial and mammalian laboratory animals; indeed, the use of fish in experiments has often been viewed as ethically preferable or even neutral. Adopting a social science perspective and qualitative methodology to address stakeholder understandings of the problem of laboratory fish welfare, this paper examines the underlying social factors and drivers that influence thinking, priorities and implementation of fish welfare initiatives and the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) for fish. Illustrating the case with original stakeholder interviews and experience of participant observation in zebrafish facilities, this paper explores some key social factors influencing the take up of the 3Rs in this context. Our findings suggest the relevance of factors including ambient cultural perceptions of fish, disagreements about the evidence on fish pain and suffering, the language of regulators, and the experiences of scientists and technologists who develop and put the 3Rs into practice. The discussion is focused on the UK context, although the main themes will be pertinent around the world.

Adopting a social science perspective and qualitative methodology on the problem of laboratory fish welfare, this paper examines some underlying social factors and drivers that influence thinking, priorities and implementation of fish welfare initiatives and the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) for fish. Drawing on original qualitative interviews with stakeholders, animal technologists and scientists who work with fish—especially zebrafish—to illustrate the case, this paper explores some key social factors influencing the take up of the 3Rs in this context. Our findings suggest the relevance of factors including ambient cultural perceptions of fish, disagreements about the evidence on fish pain and suffering, the discourse of regulators, and the experiences of scientists and animal technologists who develop and put the 3Rs into practice. The discussion is focused on the UK context, although the main themes will be pertinent around the world.

1. Introduction

The relevance of human-animal interactions, relationships and bonds to laboratory animal welfare, robust animal-dependent science and ethics is widely acknowledged by practitioners, e.g., [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. How these are embedded in and reflective of wider social processes, relations and structures is also increasingly a matter of interest to social scientists, historians and ethicists, many of whom are also concerned to better understand how such broader societal issues shape the implementation and development of public policy and associated ethical frameworks, e.g., [ 9 , 10 , 11 ], including the 3Rs [ 12 , 13 ]. There is also thriving literature on the role of public opinion concerning the use of laboratory animals, much of which illustrates an interest in how species differences can mediate social attitudes and potentially structure policy priorities, e.g., [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The case of the use of fish in regulated scientific research is a good example of this, but has seldom before been addressed for some partial exceptions, see [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. Using the 3Rs as a point of entry, this paper adopts a qualitative social scientific perspective, highlighting social drivers that could be influencing thinking on, prioritization of and implementation of laboratory fish welfare.

In the United Kingdom and many other countries, fish have not historically qualified for sympathy because they were deemed too dissimilar to humans [ 22 ] (p. 177). Times have changed: following rising concerns about food fish sustainability, oceanic health, and the industrialization of both wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture, the ethics of human-fish relations in their different forms and locations have slowly become topics of both popular (e.g., [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]) and academic (e.g., [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]) criticism. Additionally, there has been an explosion of scientific interest in the cognitive abilities of fish and their capacity for emotional experiences, topics which tend to have a close association with debates about welfare, ethics and the controversy about fish pain, e.g., [ 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Fish welfare has also risen slowly up the agenda of animal welfare charities and campaign groups. Following the steep rise of finfish aquaculture in the global North, the websites of most of the large, multi-campaign issue organizations now feature dedicated pages to fish farming and humane slaughter. There are also a growing number of online campaign groups dedicated specifically to raising awareness about suffering in fisheries and advocating for fish sentience—Fish Feel, Let Fish Live, and fishcount.org are prominent examples see [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Via the European Union in particular, regulators have made attempts at entrenching the legal recognition of fish as sentient beings in practice, and have been active in areas including humane slaughter regulations and the harmonizing of husbandry standards for farmed fish, e.g., [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. These and other developments (notably welfare-motivated restrictions on recreational angling in Switzerland and Germany) have recently led some fisheries biologists to wonder what the developing welfare agenda means for the future of aquaculture, angling, commercial fishing and research? [ 43 ].

However, the (re)emergence of discussions around contested moralities of recreational angling [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], welfare in the context of wild-capture fisheries [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ], the ethics of dietary trends (pescetarianism) [ 54 , 55 ], and the putative demands amongst consumers in some countries for higher welfare farmed fish [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 ], all suggest that there remain stubborn, sometimes intractable, challenges in all of these areas. Growth in the number of commentators does not necessarily reflect serious changes in policy and practice. It is also not yet clear whether recent interest by the news media in scientific work exploring the mental and emotional capacities of some fish species—including for example their capacity to feel pain [ 62 ], pass the mirror test of putative self-awareness [ 63 ], or “pine” for their mates and get depressed [ 64 , 65 ]—either reflect or have provoked substantial changes in public attitude. What people make of such information is open to debate. The film Finding Nemo, with its positive and engaging portrayal of one the ocean’s most charismatic fish species and its famous line “fish are friends—not food”, was predicted to have caused a ripple effect in public sentiment towards fish and the aquatic world. However, ironically, when the geographer Driessen [ 66 ] investigated this, he discovered that the film had, in fact, become a popular name for cafés specializing in fish and chips. With one café already adopting it as a name, the same appears set to be true of Blue Planet II, David Attenborough’s hugely popular documentary, which has been credited with kick-starting debate about the state of the planet’s oceans, and showed the world footage of sophisticated and surprising fish behaviors, including tool use [ 67 , 68 ].

This wider social and cultural context is important when approaching the welfare situation of laboratory fish and the 3Rs. The intensification of fish use in laboratory research generally—and the rise to prominence of zebrafish models in particular—have likewise provoked higher levels of interest in the issue of fish welfare in the sector in the UK and internationally. This includes an emergence of reflections on different ethical issues associated with the use of fish in research specifically [ 21 , 69 , 70 ]. There has also been a growing willingness to consider, develop and implement 3Rs initiatives focused on fish amongst animal technologists, scientists, veterinarians and policy makers, and both the UK and pan-European laboratory animal welfare and veterinary organizations have all played different roles in highlighting fish welfare amongst their constituencies, e.g., [ 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Furthermore, there are direct links between developments in laboratory fish welfare and other sectors. In the UK, intensive aquaculture and the laboratory aquarium are connected via personnel, technology and knowledge transfer. For example, via links between forums such as the Fish Veterinary Society and the Laboratory Animal Veterinary Society (both subsections of the British Veterinary Society), or notable colloquiums organized by organizations like the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

Yet, again, there remains a widespread sense amongst those who work with fish or who regulate fish-based science that the degree of attention that fish of any species receive is not yet commensurate with the quantities in which they are used, their importance to science, nor—if much recent behavioral and neuroscientific evidence is accepted—their possible levels of suffering. As the authors’ have often heard in the course of their research, this sense is quite widely shared amongst scientists, technologists and others who work with fish (including zebrafish) in the UK. This can filter through and be reflected in efforts to prioritize 3Rs and other welfare-relevant interventions that benefit fish. By discussing challenges to the 3Rs with reference to wider context, this paper sets out to stimulate discussion and reflection by proposing that developments (or lack thereof) in this field are connected to a variety of interlinked social drivers, and scientific, institutional and regulatory viewpoints.

2. Materials and Methods

Within the social sciences, qualitative methods offer an effective and insightful means of understanding the intersection of the broader (largely utilitarian) ethical frameworks which shape animal research, and the more individualized moral convictions, beliefs and practices of those who work closely with laboratory animals and who are often tasked with implementing policy. Interviews and participant observation, alongside the analysis of key literatures, policy documents and archival materials, have formed the basis of several landmark studies in the field, e.g., [ 9 , 74 ], and have proved highly effective in developing understandings of how ethics and the 3Rs are “put into practice” in the field of animal research [ 75 ]. Adopting a similar approach, this paper seeks to energise debate on fish and the 3Rs by drawing on the authors’ experiences of participant observation in UK zebrafish facilities, participation in professional events and conferences, as well as interviews with stakeholders. It is not intended to be a technical review of 3Rs initiatives and related welfare issues for zebrafish (of these there are a growing number, see e.g., [ 21 , 69 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ]). The objective here is to gain insights into how people who work with laboratory fish understand and explain their practices and their relationships to the humans and animals they work with, and also to the wider field of animal research. In other words, we are offering an account of the ways in which people talk about: (i) whether or not they (and others) care about fish (attitudes towards); and (ii) how this shapes their ability to care for them (husbandry practices). By relating these to wider literatures, policy documents and other textual sources we can begin to build up a picture of the key social norms and discourses in and around laboratory zebrafish research, the possible implications of these for fish welfare, and hopefully shed light on barriers to implementing and developing the 3Rs initiatives for from a sociological, rather than technical, point of view.

The arguments presented in this paper are derived from a larger body of ongoing research into the species and spaces of contemporary animal research in the UK, performed as a part of the collaborative research project “The Animal Research Nexus” project (see www.animalresearchnexus.org ). This project seeks to understand the factors that have shaped and continue to underpin the social contract on which animal research in the UK rest, better understand emergent issues and challenges, and contribute positively to cultures of communication across the sector. This paper draws on data and insights developed in one sub-strand of this wider project. This strand of work focused on understanding the care and welfare work of animal technologists, the managers of aquarium facilities and scientists who work with fish, asking how their understandings of their work relate to wider ethical and legal frameworks. As a part of this, we also engaged with other stakeholders, including veterinary professionals and the regulators of animal research in the UK—in particular, Home Office Inspectors—as well as animal welfare organisations.

This study adopts a mixed method approach, drawing on a combination of in-depth interviews, participant observation and documentary analyses. Firstly, in order to gain an insight into how fish welfare is put into practice, the first author has taken part in two one-week-long stints as a participant-observer in two different zebrafish aquariums in the UK, conducted repeat visits to a facility to see how they introduced a new zebrafish room, and participated in a professional training course for researchers and technicians who work with zebrafish. Secondly, we have reviewed publicly available documentation and relevant professional literature. Thirdly, we conducted in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews with 27 individuals (two interviews involved more than one participant being interviewed at a time), including scientists, animal technologists, facility managers, veterinary professionals, representatives of animal welfare charities, and regulators. Additionally, both authors have paid shorter visits to numerous fish facilities across the UK over the past seven years, as well as attended and participating in a variety of professional conferences and related forums and engaging in ongoing collaboration and dialogue with the wider animal research community and associated stakeholders, including both those supportive of and against animal research. While we have interviewed three scientists based at contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies, and those who specialise in commercial regulatory testing, our focus has been on university-based bioscience research. This is because this is where the vast majority of fish research in the UK is conducted. This is additionally justified because there is already a disproportionate focus on toxicology research in the 3Rs literature [ 82 , 83 ]. Lasting, on average, around one and a half hours, interviews were conducted, where possible, at the place of work of the interviewee. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analyzed thematically using the qualitative data analyses tool NVivo. A number of key themes were identified ( Table 1 ). A close reading of the relevant sections of text associated with each of these codes was then used to establish which of these themes are most pertinent to understanding the social and cultural barriers to implementing the 3Rs for zebrafish welfare, the topic of this paper—other themes identified, of course, relate more to emergent elements of the wider program. This was justified with primary reference to what participants themselves said about the 3Rs, our own experience of interacting with stakeholders and working in zebrafish facilities (participant observation), reference to themes in associated literature (discourse analysis), as well as in the light of secondary social science literature on the social organisation of animal science and the 3Rs.

Summary of main themes emerging from qualitative interviews.

These themes represent the top 25 codes generated by the authors in the process of data analyses. They are reported in descending order, from most used to least frequently used. Codes and the themes they represent often overlap. The number of times a code is used can suggest the importance of the subject to both the speaker and analyst, but the frequency of use is not on its own a measure of importance or relevance to the present topic.

While a number of foci suggest themselves, some of which the authors’ explore in forthcoming work, we have thus restricted the discussion below to three key themes: “knowledge and consensus”, “attitudes and experiences”, and “institutional support and capacity”.

In keeping with the intentions of qualitative research of this kind, emphasis is placed on depth as opposed to breadth. The sample size is small, and the results selected for presented here are indicative of a wide range of themes and key issues that should be taken into account rather than thought of as being representative in any way. A logical next step may be to use some of the perceived issues and concerns raised here as a basis for a larger, quantitative study. Inevitably, we have also neglected to discuss a number of important social and scientific issues relevant to understanding the challenges to taking up 3Rs initiatives focused on zebrafish, or fish in general. These include, for example, generic concerns about the lower status of animal welfare science and 3Rs related research versus the attractions of other fields of biological research and the relative ghettoisation of 3Rs research as a distinct category [ 84 ] (p.128). It is also possible that if and when concerns about the reproducibility of much zebrafish-based science grows, so too will “neophobia” increase in prominence as a barrier to 3Rs interventions with zebrafish though is not something reflected in our data [ 85 ].

Due to the sensitive nature of the topic (animal research), a policy of anonymisation and decontextualisation has been applied to all transcripts in order to ensure the privacy of participants. All names used in this paper are pseudonyms. All interviews were conducted with the written consent of participants. This research has been granted ethical approval by the Central University Research Ethics Committee (CUREC) of the University of Oxford (Reference Number: SOGE 18A-7). By agreement with the Wellcome Trust and research participants, anonymised interview transcripts will be deposited in the UK Data Archive based at the University of Essex ( https://www.data-archive.ac.uk ) after a period of 10 years from the completion of the Animal Research Nexus Project in 2022, except in cases where participants have explicitly opted out of this arrangement.

Focusing on Zebrafish

This paper focuses on zebrafish because, over the last three decades, they have become by far the most prominent species of fish used in animal research. In 2018, zebrafish accounted for 12 percent of all procedures done on live animals (including creation and breeding of GA lines) in the UK. All other species of fish combined accounted for 2.6 percent of animals used [ 86 ]. The species’ relatively steep rise towards the apex of lab “supermodels” has often meant that those seeking to develop 3Rs and other welfare-relevant scientific and husbandry protocols have had to work hard to keep up with the pace of change whilst striving to improve [ 80 , 87 ]. At the same time, the rise of the zebrafish, in conjunction with other trends such the intensification of aquaculture production and related public anxieties about environmental externalities and food safety, have most likely served to cast light onto the issue of fish welfare more generally, e.g., [ 42 , 88 , 89 ]. To this extent, and remaining mindful of the extensive diversity of fish kinds, many of the points made in this paper will nevertheless also be relevant to other fish species.

A number of factors are regularly cited as key attractions of the zebrafish model for biologists. These include its hardiness in captivity, small size, short generation time, rapid development and large clutch size. These factors also make them relatively cheap to maintain in large numbers. In addition, the comparative simplicity of the zebrafish genome facilitated the application of various molecular technologies. In combination with the extraordinary optical accessibility of its embryos and young larvae (they are transparent and fertilized externally to the mother’s body), these features have made zebrafish a highly tractable model for other vertebrate animals, and useful in a wide range of fields. However, these very advantages of the organism for science can also contribute to the entrenchment of particular attitudes towards them, and towards fish generally. Moreover, they can raise 3Rs considerations in their own right. Ironically, their hardiness in captivity has proven a disincentive for refining their husbandry conditions [ 90 ] (p.141). Depending on local aquarium practices and pricing structures, the low costs of maintaining zebrafish in large numbers and the ease with which they can usually be bred can create an incentive to keep transgenic lines running even when they are not being used, and a disincentive to cryopreserve and regenerate on demand—strategies which would be seen as more consistent with a reduction in animal use. The fact that zebrafish models can be valuable surrogates for other vertebrates also tends to compound the view of them as “lower” on the so-called phylogenetic scale, contributing in turn to the view that the use of fish (as embryos or larvae, but also adults) represents a kind of “relative replacement” for other vertebrate animals [ 91 ] (p.274), which is to say, a means for achieving 3Rs (replacement or refinement) targets, as opposed to individuals to whom the 3Rs principles of refinement, reduction and replacement could be applied (see also [ 92 ]).

The scale at which zebrafish are maintained and the ease and rate at which they can be induced to reproduce can also all contribute to a sense of their replaceability, and underline the difficulty of forming a bond with them as individuals—even in comparison to other small, short-lived and relatively easily replaced laboratory vertebrates like mice [ 93 , 94 ]. Some people, especially animal technologists, attempt to think of fish as unique individual beings that deserve attention as such. At one facility, we know there is an informal motto that runs along the lines of: “they’re all a group of fish, but every fish is an individual” (interview with Eugenie, aquarium facility manager, 8 February 2018). However, at the same time, it is acknowledged that this requires effort to sustain, and successful and lasting individualisation is the exception, not the rule (see also [ 95 ]). For all these and other reasons—some of which will be explored in more detail below—it is common to hear the argument that the apparent lack of social or ethical concerns associated with the use of fish in experiments is in itself one of the advantages of using zebrafish-based model systems, e.g., [ 20 ] (p. 407–408). Fish in general, but zebrafish specifically, are indeed frequently viewed as the “easier ethical option”, as one participant in our study put it (interview with Helen, representative of an animal welfare organization, 9 January 2019). In sum, while similar things may be said about other fish species, there are good reasons to pay special attention to zebrafish.

3. Results and Discussion

Analyses of our interview data suggest the presence of three especially significant social norms or discourses about fish welfare in the laboratory context. For summary purposes, we have labelled these “knowledge and consensus”, “attitudes and experiences”, and “institutional support and capacity”. Each of these narratives is internally diverse in terms of the individual opinions expressed, as well as overlapping and mutually reinforcing. Key themes included in the discussions which follow include: (structural) enrichment, fish, regulatory attitudes with respect to fish and the public; views about fish, embryos and larvae from within the aquarium and the size and composition of the zebrafish community

3.1. Knowledge and Consensus

Appendix A of the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes (ETS123) provides key guidelines for the accommodation and care of animals used in science across Europe. Speaking about the challenge of managing a number of expert working groups convened by Council of Europe during the process of revising Appendix A in the early 2000s, an ex-UK Home Office Inspector told us “ [It] was like herding cats—they would not agree on anything ” (interview with Colin, ex-Home Office Inspector, 26 June 2019). In his experience, the field of fish welfare has been characterised by a lot of disagreement, often underpinned by insufficient knowledge of fish/zebrafish welfare science and of the basic biology that informs it, at least in comparison to the knowledge of the other major laboratory animal species. Similarly, our research suggests that, amongst those involved in the worlds of zebrafish science, there is limited consensus on what best practice is in a number of important welfare and 3Rs-relevant areas. Debate rages on numerous topics, including stocking density, food and feeding regimes, methods of anesthesia, euthanasia, the need for analgesia, and the need for environmental enrichment, to name only a few. This is reflected, as Colin explained, in the relative paucity of official guidance available for fish at the EU level or the level of individual member states—even for zebrafish, which are the most studied and used species. This section therefore explores narratives about knowledge, consensus and disagreement, focusing on two different examples. Firstly, the question of environmental enrichment, and secondly variation in beliefs about the ability of fish to feel pain and suffer, both of which are clearly relevant to welfare generally and the 3Rs specifically.

3.1.1. “Putting Things in Tanks”

There exists a division in the zebrafish community in the UK between those who are in favor of environmental enrichment, and those who raise concerns about it (see also [ 96 ] p.586). To be specific, some facility managers and technologists—experienced husbandry professionals, some with backgrounds in relevant scientific disciplines—express doubts about the benefits of structural enrichment: the addition of plastic plants, substrates and so forth so as to provide cover and stimulation for fish who otherwise live in barren, clear plastic tanks. Some suggested that structural enrichment can encourage abnormal behavior, but the most common issue raised was that the welfare benefits of structural enrichment were not very clear. Felix, an experienced facility manager with a background in research, suggested there was a fashion for “putting things in tanks” (interview with Felix, aquarium facility manager, 1 November 2018). Felix, and others whom we have spoken to who share his point of view, are far from dismissive of enrichment for fish in general but worry that a focus on structural enrichments is a distraction from the factors they think are really more important for fish welfare and should be the focus of attention. Felix terms these more important factors the “subtle enrichments, your lighting, your temperatures, your feeding, your flows, those are a much more valuable asset than a plastic plant within a tank”.

People like Felix worry that the evidence base about the value of such structural enrichments for zebrafish is weak. An ex-Home Office inspector comments:

I think probably the biggest constraint is just actually the lack of good data and scientific knowledge about what an appropriate environment for the zebrafish might be. I think again there is quite a lot of anthropomorphic views on what a zebrafish actually requires. You put them into an empty tank and that must be bad for them so they then put in lots of substrate and weeds and various other things in as well, you know, but we don’t really know, I don’t know… [interview with Craig, ex-Home Office Inspector, 25 June 2019]

Another facility manager concurs, arguing the welfare benefits of this kind of enrichment are in her estimation “fairly unproven”:

[W]e can’t make that much more progress I personally don’t feel unless we can really say this is what is good for them in terms of like environmental enrichment, do we want divers in there with bubbles, and why would we want that, where do they ever see that, or plastic plants, would they see that in the wild? Is it appropriate? [interview with Fae, aquarium facility manager, 27 February 2018]

No one, of course, is suggesting the use of plastic divers and shipwrecks in academic research aquariums. The point being made is that the desire for objects in tanks is largely a human one: it satisfies our humane and aesthetic demands, rather than (so the suggestion goes) the real needs of the animals (as far as we know). Hence it has been pursued in the absence of evidence about its benefits. Fae and others in her position do not disagree that it is possible to observe certain behavioral changes on the introduction of an object like a plastic plant or simulated substrate, for example, which suggest a preference for occupying enriched parts of the tank. It is the interpretation of what these observed behavioral changes might actually mean for fish welfare that is questioned.

These kinds of concerns were echoed by animal technologists who work closely with fish. For example, Frank noted:

We can look at cortisone levels or whatever but you don’t really know if you’re actually helping them. Like with a plant, I mean on one hand you’re creating cover for them to hide in if they’re getting bullied or fighting, on the other hand, you’re creating something for someone to get territorial about and stressed about. [interview with Frank, senior animal technologist, 18 January 2018]

A Home Office inspector also noted that

[I]n terms of enrichment, for instance, we don’t actually know largely what fish want. […] And I think that--, that’s a significant challenge to get over some of the hurdles and show people how it can happen. [interview with Gail, Home Office Inspector, 15 May 2019]

While Gail sees this lack of knowledge as a barrier to acceptance, this does not feature in her discourse as a reason for being cautious about advocating their uptake in aquariums. Evidently, people operate with different ideas about what a sufficient evidential bar is. This reflects divisions in the field of laboratory animal welfare more generally as to whether the intuitions and experiences of the practices and protocols developed by technologists in individual facilities offer a strong enough evidence base for novel enrichment practices [ 75 ]. In this context, it is, of course, possible to cleave too bio-physiological measures of “health” only, in which the psychological and emotional factors usually comprehended within the wider term “welfare” are excluded. [ 44 ]. However, the latter, more encompassing and holistic outlook certainly seems to motivate managers and technologists who go out of their way to provide structural enrichments when they can. Sometimes this can be a real labor of love. One establishment found it could not afford to buy plastic plants from a hobby shop, so developed a way of making “plants” by fashioning them from plastic bags and weighing these down with marbles. This took six months of soaking the bags in a light bleach solution to stop the plastic leaching substances that may interfere with scientific results, and careful and time-consuming handwork by staff members to shape the fronds and attach the weights [RM, Field Notes,11 January 2018].

Advocates of structural enrichment do cite published evidence in favor of their opinions. A paper suggesting that zebrafish express a preference for substrates by positioning themselves over photographs of gravel is particularly often cited in the UK (see [ 97 ]). Those already inclined to enrichment tend to find such evidence a better reason to act than others who are not. An animal welfare policy expert felt that these results clearly “show that they [zebrafish] benefit from environmental enrichment”, but implied that this evidence was ignored (interview with Helen, representative of animal welfare organization, 9 January 2019). Others object to this interpretation of the meaning of fish preference behaviors or report having been told of (the referecne to hearsay is deliberate here) statistical or methodological weaknesses in papers about enrichment, and explain that people they know—others in the field—have taken these as a basis for inaction.

We would suggest that these differences cannot be understood by looking at the published scientific literature only. Technologists and facility managers are moreover also at pains to point out the practical and economic downsides of structural environmental enrichments. For example, they can obscure technologists’ view of the fish whilst performing mandatory health checks, slowing them down and potentially leaving them less time for other important husbandry and welfare issues. They may also gather dirt and become unhygienic, and of course, they cost money to purchase in the first place which may have previously been allocated elsewhere.

Another factor shaping orientations on this topic seems to be an identification with and long-term exposure to the world of mammalian husbandry, and especially previous experience working with rodents. Amongst our participants, those who most clearly expressed skepticism towards structural enrichment (plants, houses, substrate or even images of substrate), tended to identify strongly as “fish people” first and foremost. They may, for example, have backgrounds in marine biology, aquaculture, or hobby aquaria, or simply have no or limited professional interaction with the world of rodent husbandry. In some cases, the facilities which we visited who do not enrich as a matter of course are geographically, socially and administratively separate from the biological service facilities which run mammalian animal units. They tend to see the need to put “things in tanks” as something imported from the world of “fluffies” (as the technologists at one facility called them), and often pushed by people with more knowledge of mice specifically than of fish. Fae again expresses the point: “we look to mammals”, she told us “and go oh yeah environmental enrichment, that’s structural things in tanks” (interview with Fae, aquarium facility manager, 27 February 2018).

On the other hand, Fae herself recalled how 20 or 30 years ago, it was common to see mice and rat cages that were entirely devoid of structural enrichments, like many zebrafish tanks today. Thus, the experience with rodents gets overlaid onto fish, as though fish must, or should be, on the same trajectory. In this case, “things in tanks” follow from being used to seeing “things in cages”. Evelyn, who is has extensive experience in all manner of mammalian husbandry, including running rat and mouse houses, and who takes pride in the compliment that her aquarium is run “like a mouse unit”, told us that

if the mice were in the same situation 20 years ago [as the fish are today] they were just mice, but now like we have to provide enrichment, we have to provide certain bedding and nesting materials, we have to do this, we have to do that, and at some point or other, maybe not in my time, but the fish will have the same rights [laughs] somewhere along the line. [interview with Evelyn, aquarium facility manager, 18 January 2018]

Thus, knowledge of the welfare trajectory of mice is actually an explicit motivation for pursuing innovations, including enrichment, for fish in some cases. To be clear, the point is not that some of our research participants objected to better or more complex enrichments. Rather, they expressed skepticism about whether structural enrichments specifically have positive welfare effects that outweigh their downsides in different circumstances. Notably, it seems that this doubt is likely to be spiced with concerns about the source of advocacy for structural forms of environmental enrichment, including the belief that this is an ideology that is imported, without due consideration to context and species differences, from the world of rodent husbandry. Such views are connected to identity as well as to evaluations of evidence .

The matter became more acute for some participants when they perceived pressure to adopt structural enrichments to be coming from regulatory authorities, the most visible face of which are the UK Home Office Inspectors (HOI). Felix, for example, stated that, in his view, it was the Home Office who starting pressing for enrichment for fish “because that’s what they did for rodents”. Cynically, he concluded that “[I] could have solved the majority of my problems [related to facility inspections] if I had just had a plastic plant in the tank” (interview with Felix, animal facility manager, 1 November 2018). Another facility manager we spoke to, a keen proponent of enrichment for all kinds of animal, lamented the fact that, in his opinion some researchers do actually choose to enrich as a kind of virtue signaling to outsiders, especially the Home Office, not because they actually care much about what it might mean for animal welfare (RM, Field Notes, 16 August 2018).

The objection to “putting things in tanks” is thus sociological as well as scientific: those making the argument draw not only on scientific evidence but on their understandings of the views of outsiders to the fish world and their relationship to authority figures, as well as more pragmatic material and economic factors. We would suggest that similar combinations of factors are present in the instances of a variety of other disagreements associated with fish welfare in the aquarium. It is also important to note that everyone would welcome more research into the use of enrichments specifically and the biology of fish welfare generally. However, it would appear—and this is an issue demanding more research—it is equally important to achieving a sense of agreement on the underlying framework for deciding on what good welfare is and how it should be assessed. Furthermore, as we’ve suggested, where welfare recommendations are produced or come from (by scientists, by technologists or by particular groups or individuals, for example) and who they are promoted by (aquarists, “mouse people” or an HOI and so forth) can be very important, over and above the recommendations themselves, in determining their reception by the laboratory animal community.

3.1.2. Pain and Analgesia

Although the view is not universal, for many people who work with fish, fish welfare generally and the 3Rs specifically only have meaning on the assumption that these animals are sentient beings, feel pain and suffer as a consequence [ 88 , 98 ]. This intuition is reinforced by the fact that the law in the UK and the European Union effectively assumes that they are sentient and certainly that they feel pain. As such, the ongoing and high-profile debate about whether or not fish have, as a matter of scientific fact, the capacity to feel pain and suffer [ 35 , 99 , 100 ] has limited direct influence on the implementation and development of 3Rs-orientated welfare initiatives targeted at fish. In the day-to-day running of laboratory animal facilities, good animal welfare is a matter of complying with regulation, not challenging the epistemic or ethical assumptions of the law with respect to the possibility of emotional and subjective experience in fish.

Nevertheless, the fact that there is a continuing controversy about fish pain might have a variety of more-or-less indirect effects that are relevant to understanding barriers to implementing the 3Rs with fish. Almost everyone we spoke to about this issue expressed varying degrees of uncertainty about whether fish actually feel pain, what this means to them, and whether humans will ever be in a position to know much about this. Given the oft-remarked phenomenon of “sentientism” (not to mention “speciesism”), this is unsurprising [ 101 ]. In some cases, though, opinions on the subject were connected directly to the scholarly debate. For example, one researcher who takes a negative view of the issue argued:

“What I want to say is, erm, I think it is a difficult subject because until you really know, you can’t estimate what an animal perceives or what it doesn’t perceive. But what all the research shows at the moment is that you [the fish] do not have the higher brain structures required to perceive pain. [interview with Hanna, researcher, 27 November 2018]

In other cases, it was based more on personal intuition and belief. Referring to the behavior of post-operative fish, Evelyn said:

They [the fish] act like everything is fine, but there is always a nagging doubt in the back of my head, there always will be. My dad was a fisherman, you know, and you can’t tell me that having a hook through your lip is not going to be painful. Can they [the fish] feel it? I don’t know. [interview with Evelyn, animal facility manager, 18 January 2018]

It is hard of course in any case to attribute the causes of particular actions or lack thereof specifically to beliefs about fish pain. However, there are a number of specific areas where such beliefs are more likely to shape action and influence debate in the field.

The foremost example of this is probably the use (or lack thereof) of analgesia. Some of our participants pointed out that it is a default legal requirement to administer pain relief for all protected animals when appropriate, yet in the case of fish there was no standard analgesic authorized for use, nor indeed is analgesia use as widely practiced as it could be. There are many reasons that the use of analgesia following procedures on small fish like zebrafish may be problematic. Many of these refer to basic problems of a lack of evidence and/or consensus. Problems include a need to better understand the trade-offs between analgesia and other welfare concerns. For example, does the benefit of analgesia for a social species like a zebrafish outweigh the benefits of remaining in group housing, since isolation is usually necessary to administer it, and in what circumstances? They also include limited knowledge of the potential confounding variables that analgesic agents can introduce into experimental outcomes, a lack of knowledge of the pharmacological effects of different analgesic agents on different species, as well as problems connected with how to recognise and assess the effectiveness of these agents in these animals [ 102 , 103 ].

Nevertheless, more than one veterinarian has proposed that the existence of controversy on the subject of fish pain could be an underlying factor explaining the unwillingness amongst those responsible to implement analgesia protocols [ 104 ]. In the opinion of Schroeder and Mocho [ 105 ] (p.36), moreover, there is a danger that prospective applicants for licenses downplay evidence suggesting that fish do feel pain in favor of emphasising that it has not been conclusively shown that they do, and interpret the latter “as ‘carte blanche’ to avoid the use of analgesics altogether”. While much more fine-grained evidence needs to be gathered in order to understand resistance to, or at least slowness of spread, of analgesic protocols at the facility level, there are reasonable grounds for considering the fish pain controversy to be a contributory factor. While pain itself could be seen as introducing confounding effects, in one case we are aware of, permission not to administer analgesia following invasive surgery was granted for a combination of reasons, both scientific (related to the introduction of confounding effects) and welfare based, including the production of published arguments suggesting that fish are unlikely to experience the emotional effects of pain of the sort associated with higher and forebrain structures in mammals (interview with Hanna, researcher; RM Field Notes, 11 January 2018). So, plausibly, it is at least something which could tip the balance against analgesia in tie-breaker situations. Again here it is not only the scientific evidence which is shaping decisions about fish welfare, but how that evidence (or the lack thereof) is selectively deployed in decision making processes, with individuals most drawn to the evidence they believe supports their case, as has long been observed by science studies scholars in a range of fields of research, e.g., [ 106 ].

While the debates over analgesia use offer an example of the fish-pain controversy potentially shaping welfare practice, the most important effects of the ongoing debate on fish pain are likely to be more diffuse, influencing attitudes and priorities in subtle ways. In particular, there is the possibility that uncertainty about the nature of fish sentience gets shifted into plausible but unsubstantiated beliefs about fish’s relative lack of sentience in comparison to other vertebrates in some kind of a putative scale of sentience for which there is little or no objective basis. While regulations sensitive to the recognition of degrees of sentience may one day be possible and desirable [ 107 ], as it is such views about differences amongst vertebrates are likely to be informed by outdated ideas about the phylogenetic scale [ 91 ], as well as more arbitrary and sentimental ideas about what people believe is acceptable to do to different categories of animal [ 6 , 9 , 108 ]. A Home Office Inspector we interviewed tried to pick her way through this complex terrain:

So there’s been huge arguments over those 20 years about are fish sentient at all? […] And I’ve always taken the presumption, well it’s in our law, that they wouldn’t be protected if they weren’t sentient--, if we didn’t believe they were sentient [they wouldn’t be there] and therefore we should be doing the best that we can for them. But equally they are a fantastic model as a replacement because, as far as we know, they are less sentient than other species, but we don’t know. So we would still suggest that it is better to move into zebrafish than to use mice, and I say that with some hesitancy […] most people in society I think would be more comfortable with fish being a replacement for mice. [interview with Gail, Home Office Inspector, 15 May 2019]

In this passage, it is very clear how beliefs about what the public feel about the use of different animals fills the gap opened up by the admission of fundamental uncertainty about the nature of fish sentience and experience. This movement is common in our experience. The concept of “societal sentience” has been proposed to understand such situations [ 109 ]. This refers to how people, especially policy makers, imagine what the public feels about animals—i.e., it is the feelings (sentience) of people that are in focus here, more than animals. In this context, relationships and attitudes to animals like fish, as well as beliefs about the extent to which those attitudes are shared with a wider ‘socially sentient’ public, can become extremely important in mediating decisions about their use and, by extension the urgency and relevance of 3Rs initiatives. This is the subject of the following section.

3.2. Attitudes and Experiences

When there is an acknowledged lack of scientific consensus on issues that are of community and policy relevance, the values and perspectives held by collective and individual stakeholders can play a key role in shaping policy decisions and practices [ 110 ]. This section explores attitudes towards fish and the 3Rs held by those working in research settings and the factors shaping them. It focuses on the influence of those involved in regulation, including policy documents and legislation, as well as those with first-hand experiences working with zebrafish.

3.2.1. Regulators and the Public

The legal framework that regulates animal research in the UK is remarkably un-speciesist. Fish are formally afforded the same protections as most other vertebrate animals. For example, the two most commonly used laboratory animals—fish and mice—have exactly the same status in legislation. The importance of this should not be underestimated—not only in legal terms, but in terms of the broader agenda it helps set and the message it sends to all who work in the field. However, this picture changes somewhat with a closer look at the legislation and especially its modes of implementation. What emerges is a sense of hierarchy. In the UK, some animals do have some additional protections consequent on their special status in human society (primates, cats, dogs and horses). This suggests a subtle gradient of “social acceptability” in terms of what is expected to be tolerated by the public [ 109 ] (p.683) and, consequently, a prioritisation of the interests of certain species above that others emerges.

In the UK, the Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU), based in the Home Office, is responsible for regulating the operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). ASRU’s Inspectorate division plays a key role in interpreting and applying the law and developing policy. A central element of this is reviewing and approving project license applications (a license is required to perform regulated experimental procedures on regulated animals in the UK). As a part of applying for a license, prospective licensees are required by law to demonstrate they have considered the 3Rs in the development of their research program. To assist applicants in completing the necessary documentation, the Inspectorate produce an annotated license form. This guidance document suggests applicants justify that their chosen animal model is the most refined possible, asking as prompt: “Why can’t you use animals with a lower capacity to experience pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm, e.g., fish instead of mice?” [ 111 ] (p.22). (The document is called “ASPeL Project License Application Template—General License Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986”, version V 2.0 21/12/17 and is (at the time of writing) still available via the Home Office website. Previous versions contained similar advice.) It is hard to assess the specific effects of this kind of “official” advice, but it is likely to have proven important in the past in promulgating the idea that the use of fish versus mice (or other mammals) is a kind of refinement or “relative replacement” in itself. For example, one grant awarded by the UK’s main 3Rs funding body, the NC3Rs, explicitly described the use of zebrafish as “a great opportunity for reduction of the use of higher order vertebrate species thereby reducing animal suffering” as its central 3Rs justification see [ 112 ]. This suggests embedded social and cultural assumptions about the sentience of fish and mice that are hard to justify purely in scientific terms. Implicitly or explicitly viewing the use of fish versus mice in this way sits awkwardly with the formal equality articulated in the definition of protected animal in legislation. It actually undermines what has been years of effort by Inspectors and others in the UK to elevate the status of fish and promote their welfare—and indeed recent advice has clearly moved away from this.

The management of risk is a related important way in which representations of the public’s putative attitude towards fish may be made relevant to regulators. In our interviews, HOIs themselves talk a lot about risk assessment and risk management, particularly in terms of the allocation of Inspector resources and site inspections. A risk-based approach has become increasingly central and formalised in the wake of tightening budgets in the last decade. Risk in this context refers to a number of things, especially risk of non-compliance with the law and the presence of new species and use of novel procedures at a facility [ 113 ] (pp.22–23). But what could be described as “societal concerns” also emerged in our research, informing these sources of risk and adding their own dimension (see also [ 114 ] p.16). This includes concerns about the possibility of overt public outcries over the use or mistreatment of animals in research, and we suggest that in practice this is often interpreted as political or reputational risk to the Minister. For example, Craig, reflecting on the acceleration of a risk-based management approach at the Home Office, told us that in his opinion “the whole thing that actually drives ASPA [legislation] I think is essentially public perception” (interview with Craig, ex-Home Office Inspector, 25 June 2019). Thus, work involving specially protected species for which the public has great sympathy, such as with nonhuman primates, is typically viewed as especially high risk. Heather also noted how “public perception and risk” are a part of the calculation which informs how Inspectors allocate their attention:

You know, so obviously, the feeling is that the public would prefer, if you like, primates to be inspected more frequently and are maybe less concerned about mice being [inspected]. [interview with Heather, ex-Home Office Inspector, 17 January 2019]

This is clearly connected to ideas about species hierarchies, albeit in contextually specific ways.

Craig and Gail also referred to conservation work involving badgers as an example of an especially high-risk research program because badgers are believed to command a great deal of public attention and have been widely politicised in the UK (see [ 115 ]). In contrast, Gail says, “there are people who are doing conservation work on species that perhaps are not so high in the public consciousness and so the relative risk for the Minister then is lower” (interview with Gail, Home Office Inspector, 15 May 2019). Things which are likely to scandalise the Secretary of State are, of course, breaches in legal compliance in terms of animal welfare law, and harms being caused which are indefensible in the face of limited benefits. Thus, animal welfare and the management of (political) risk are not incompatible goals, but they are not necessary always perfectly aligned either. Zebrafish per se cannot be said to rank as a low priority in all circumstances—this would be too much of a generalisation and a lot of effort has gone into trying to raise the profile of zebrafish welfare at the Home Office and beyond. However, given what has been said about the perception of fish, their representation in the regulatory discourse, and widespread assumptions about what the public feel about fish, it is perhaps not unreasonable to suggest that they might occasionally fall between the cracks created when the different prerogatives of risk assessment are misaligned. This could contribute in turn to the effective, though unintentional, marginalisation of fish and a reduced likelihood of their being prioritised as candidates for investment in welfare interventions.

The relative marginalisation of fish is also evident in the materials of organised campaign groups, who are capable of aggregating and directing diffuse and ill-formed public sentiment, and who are an important intermediary in shaping the perspectives of those who make and enforce and policy [ 116 ]. A review of the homepages of relevant organisations in Britain suggests that they do not consider fish an important focus for their campaigns. The websites of the main groups campaigning for the abolition of animal research in the UK (Cruelty Free International, National Anti-Vivisection Society, Animal Free Research UK) feature a total of zero images of fish on their homepages, though primates, dogs and rabbits are well represented. The RSPCA’s Laboratory Animal’s webpage, despite the organisation’s important role in disseminating husbandry and welfare standards [ 71 ] and raising awareness of fish welfare in UK labs, likewise featured no images of fish at the time of writing. Turning to the homepages of UK-based organisations specifically focused on funding 3Rs initiatives and/or the development of alternatives to the use of animals in science (FRAME, NC3Rs, Lord Dowding Fund), we find a total of one fish-related image out of a total of 17 representations of animals displayed at any one time. Indeed, fish are not the “poster critters” of animal research generally: homepages of the major “industry bodies” (Institute of Animal Technology, Laboratory Animal Science Association, Laboratory Animal Veterinary Association) feature zero images of fish out of total of 15 representations of animals. (This analyses was performed on 20/08/2019. All identifiable representations of animals were counted, including organizational logos. Addresses for the relevant websites are as follows: National Anti-Vivisection Society: http://www.navs.org.uk/home/ ; Animal Free Research UK: https://www.animalfreeresearchuk.org/ ; Cruelty Free International (previously BUAV): https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/ ; RSPCA Laboratory animals: https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/laboratory ; FRAME: https://frame.org.uk/ ; Lord Dowding Fund: http://www.ldf.org.uk/research/ ; NC3Rs: https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/ ; LASA: http://www.lasa.co.uk/ ; LAVA: https://www.lava.uk.net/index.php?sid=2dc936c14ca15e85e7d76b7d6b23092a ; IAT: https://www.iat.org.uk/ . The National Anti-Vivisection Society and Lord Dowding Fund websites feature a new stock image in their banners each time their pages are refreshed. Out of a total of at least 18 unique images registered, none feature fish.) Thus, if the unofficial status of fish is at least partially a function of the perception of the Inspectorate with respect to societal concerns and political risk, it is arguably a reasonably well-grounded one.

3.2.2. Relating to Fish in the Aquarium

The views of the “general public” are thus important (see, e.g., [ 18 ]), but what is perhaps most critical in the light of our discussion is appreciation of how the public is imagined by policy makers [ 109 ]. This imaginary in turn shapes the priorities of regulators with implications for the scrutiny and prioritization of 3Rs efforts. This could be viewed as a “top-down” influence on the implementation of the 3Rs for fish. Complementing this insight, we turn attention in this section to look in more detail at some of the views about fish held by technologists, aquarium managers and veterinarians, because these are also central to the development and application of the 3Rs in situ [ 75 ], or from the “bottom-up”.

In our experience, it is very common for people who work with fish on a daily basis to object to what they see as the semi-official neglect of fish and the tendency to view the use of fish as in itself a kind of refinement or even replacement. These attitudes are often accompanied by a desire to advocate for fish and see them treated equally with other animal denizens of the lab:

So, I think this idea that fish are some sort of replacement, I don’t think it’s right because we’ve decided to protect these animals so they should all be treated equally. [interview with Fiona, Named Veterinary Surgeon, 8 February 2018]

They should have the same rights as everything else, and it might be just a fish, but going back a very long time someone told me that it was just a monkey… So you know, there should be no difference in my--, I know a monkey is a monkey and intelligent, but they’re in this building looking at us to be their eyes, ears and voice and protect them, there should be no difference whether it’s a fruit fly or a fish or a monkey or a pig or a mouse, whatever. [interview with Evelyn, aquarium facility manager, 18 January 2018]

At one animal facility, we observed how a poster on a corridor wall advertising aspects of the European Directive (2010/63) on the use of animals in research was decorated with images of small furry mammals. Irritated by the absence of a representation of fish, aquarium staff had stuck pictures of fish over them [RM Field Notes, 11 January 2018, Figure 1 ].

An image of zebrafish is pasted over an image of mouse on an education and training poster at a UK zebrafish aquarium facility (detail from poster). 29 October 2019. Photo credit: Reuben Message.

It is also common for people who work regularly with fish to say that they see fish and other animals as equals, but that they are aware of people who do not:

[For me a fish is] still a living being so I don’t see it as being different myself. But I think a lot of people feel differently. [interview with Francis, researcher, 20 April 2018]

At the same time, however, people who work with fish will also often admit that they themselves do not feel the same way about fish as they do about other animals, especially mammals. Asked whether she empathised with her fish, Erica demurred with some difficulty:

I think that [the word empathy] might be too strong. But definitely in that direction. Yeah, it’s because their faces are different [laughs], so you can’t really empathise with something that looks different from you, I think. Not that I’m saying that’s the right thing, but--, [interview with Erica, senior animal technologist, 23 April 2018]

Despite being, as we have seen, a very enthusiastic champion of the “equal rights” of fish and advocate of laboratory animal equality, Evelyn admits that she finds working with fish emotionally less engaging. Fish are more difficult to attach to than animals like primates, pigs, sheep, rabbits and rats [interview with Evelyn, aquarium facility manager, 18 January 2018]. Grant, an experienced fish researcher and keen aquarium hobbyist, noted:

[…] from a personal point of view you can fairly well guess I care about my fish, and that lights me up. […Yet] I still feel more comfortable that we would use a fish rather than a mouse any day of the week. Even the smartest fish. That step into mammals--, […] is a difficult thing to deal with. [interview with Grant, researcher, 6 February 2018]

Gideon, another zebrafish user, declaimed the “double standard”, as he sees it, that gets applied to fish, but then noted that he also understands why the double standard exists because he feels it himself, and speculates on the causes:

Yeah, less emotional attachment. It’s undeniable, it’s not the same. […] I don’t know, maybe because it’s sushi. [interview with Gideon, researcher, 9 October 2018]

Frank, reflecting a very common theme amongst aquarists, noted that if he “had to cull a pig or a dog or a cat, I wouldn’t be in the job”, and explained that:

I’d rather work with fish because you don’t get the attachment that you would with mice. Maybe I’m the other way. I try not to be, but I am quite sort of, I can be anthropomorphic. I know that you can’t reflect your emotions onto them but it’s hard not to do so. In that sense I don’t have that relationship with the fish. I take them seriously and I care seriously and I want them to be healthy, but it wouldn’t keep me up at night, if I had to cull some fish at the end of the day it wouldn’t keep me up at night. [interview with Frank, senior animal technologist, 18 January 2018]

There are of course many reasons why fish generally and zebrafish specifically engender this kind of ambivalence, even amongst people who know them best and attend to them often on a daily basis. As discussed above, these include their small size, their relatively short lives and high reproductive rates, and the often very large numbers in which they are kept. All of these factors militate against humans forming lasting bonds with them as individuals. Then there are other specific biological and ecological characteristics of fish: their lack of “face” and “voice” with familiar interactional and emotional cues [ 66 ]. They lack what has been termed “nonhuman charisma” [ 117 ], an ascribed property of some animals that has been credited, in the context of animal conservation, with generating social interest and species–specific knowledge bases which in turn forms the basis for decisions on policy and funding priorities. In this sense, nonhuman charisma leads to what could be thought of as differing degrees of “political” influence for different animal taxa.

In the case of aquarium fish, the water adds a further element of detachment; while wild fish are even more remote, it’s still the case that even when in the same room as us, captive fish live visibly separate lives from our own, behind glass and in a different element.

Because they’re in glass tanks and they’re very separate you don’t kind of get that interaction quite the same as you would with a smaller mammal. [Consequently], it’s easier to kind of detach yourself a little bit emotionally from that fish. [interview with Gemma, senior animal technologist, 8 February 2018]

Such themes of perceived psychic distance are very common in discussions with technologists and others who work with zebrafish. For Fae, though, this results in a regrettable state of affairs. She argued that people’s ability to relate or attach to animals plays too big a role in driving priorities, to the detriment of fish welfare:

And I think this is what it is, I mean this is what I find annoying at times, it’s not really about the fish it’s what people can relate to and what people believe, and you know this is why we have these massive variations in welfare with fish because people just don’t get it and like they’re not thinking--, you know, if they can’t relate to it themselves I think it’s much harder. [Interview with Fae, aquarium facility manager, 27 February 2018]

It is difficult to connect these kinds of attitudes directly to the situation of the 3Rs. Harboring the kinds of conflicted emotions that we have been discussing of course does not preclude one from being active in pursuing 3Rs initiatives because people can be inconsistent and motivated by many different and competing prerogatives at once. But areas where these kinds of feelings amongst scientists and technicians towards fish do seem particularly likely to influence their actions or priorities, however, include the assessment of welfare and especially severity. Feeling emotionally and thus morally distant from fish in their alien habitats could conceivably compound the practitioners struggle to recognise, evaluate or correctly rank relevant signs of ill welfare or suffering.

3.3. Institutional Support and Capacity

The challenges of a contested evidence base, combined with general sense amongst both general “public” and those working with laboratory animals who find it “hard to care” about fish are compounded by (and arguably compound) the challenges that are experienced in mobilising institutional support for 3Rs initiatives. It is obvious that the kind and degree of institutional and economic support for fish-focused 3Rs initiatives are crucial to their success. A great deal could be said on this point, though much of this would apply to barriers to the development of the 3Rs for all species, not just fish or zebrafish. We focus here on only one main point with the claim that, as important as zebrafish are as a model organism, the size of the scientific and technical community it supports are still significantly smaller than the mouse community, and this means that it often does not possess the diversity of functions necessary to identify problems and credibly take forward solutions to them. In his observations, however, ex-HOI Colin, who has a lot of experience across the European Union as well as the UK, made this point most perspicuously. While gesturing towards the issue of funding, he explained that the problem is not simply that there was not enough of it, but that, in comparison to rodents, there was not yet within in the zebrafish world sufficient capacity to compete for it on even terms. Thus, Colin described a relative absence of what he called a “welfare support group” comprised of “vets, technicians [technologists], and welfare scientists” analogous to that which exists for what he called “the furries”. As he explained:

[fish-directed 3Rs research] is not sexy enough I don’t think and there’s not enough people involved to actually--, you know, because it’s difficult for technicians [technologists] to go to Wellcome [funders of biomedical science] and say, “Could I have a pot of money?” or even NC3Rs [National Centre for the 3Rs], whereas there’s a lot of people out there who’ve done animal welfare degrees or whatever and are interested in furries or whatever, and they know they’ll get funding. [interview with Colin, ex-Home Office Inspector, 26 June 2019]

And, he continued by pointing out that

[…] the other issue with fish people, the fish scientists are--, zebrafish scientists tend to be totally focused on zebrafish and the science, they’re not all that interested in welfare, they’re not behavioural type people, whereas in the furry world you’ve got behavioural type scientists who are interested in [welfare and the 3Rs]. [interview with Colin, ex-Home Office Inspector, 26 June 2019]

This is, of course, just the impression of one experienced observer, but it suggests an important point. Namely, that the diversity of available skills, interests and concomitant credibility is a function to some extent of the size of the extended community of practice. If this community is small, this represents an important sociological constraint on the development of new 3Rs interventions.

In our experience, many 3Rs-relevant welfare and husbandry initiatives are, in fact, driven “from the bottom up” by technologists and aquarium facility managers, not only academic research scientists. In the UK, centers of excellence have emerged around some, usually sizable aquariums managed by motivated individuals, though there is no particular pattern to this: in some cases, these individuals have backgrounds in general animal management or the management of rodents in particular but have become over time become leaders in the field of fish husbandry; in other cases, managers have backgrounds in aquatic biology, fish behavior or indeed biomedical research, and have moved into management. Many such initiatives are very local and small scale. The development of “DIY” environmental enrichment (see above) falls in this category, as does the move by one facility to introduce spirulina as an additive to fish diet (this has the effect of enhancing the lateral pink streak often expressed by male zebrafish. As a consequence, lab users are able to easily and reliably identify the sexes visually, instead of needing to anaesthetize them for closer examination as had been done routinely previously by some lab members). Other initiatives may begin life on the aquarium floor, but expand outwards: for example, the first Body Condition Scoring System for zebrafish was developed by staff at University College London’s zebrafish aquarium [ 118 ]. Initiatives such as the Zebrafish Health and Welfare Glossary, which promotes a standardised approached to welfare evaluation and nomenclature, have also been developed and primarily promoted by technical staff [ 119 ].

Local, technologist-led 3Rs initiatives are likely to vary considerably in the degree to which they are supported—in all senses of the word—by academic scientists and the wider bureaucratic, professional and institutional structures in which they emerge and to which they relate. While those who initiate and become involved in such efforts may have different or mixed motivations—from personal desire to change the lives of animals for the better, to a sense of professional responsibility or career ambition—it should be noted that in doing so they are liable sometimes to go beyond the proverbial “call of duty”, and there are consequently limits as to what can expected in terms of uptake and scale.

Academic researchers, of course, are not absent from this picture. Many 3Rs-geared ambitions for zebrafish would be impossible without specialist scientific expertise. In the UK, for example, Lynne Sneddon and colleagues have published influential data from numerous experiments focused explicitly on the possibility of deriving 3Rs interventions from them, for example, in areas such as analgesia research [ 81 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 ], enrichment [ 97 ] and automated welfare monitoring [ 124 ]. Academic researchers have also led in the development of protocols with direct 3Rs implications, for instance, concerning the genotyping of zebrafish by means of fin clips on very young larvae (3dpf) [ 125 ]. Indeed, looking at the database of funded research from the premier source of 3Rs funding in the UK—the NC3Rs—we find as of 2 December 2019 that with one exception, all funded zebrafish-based projects have established research scientists listed as their principal investigators. (See NC3Rs “Our Science” search results for the keyword “zebrafish”. The search was restricted to all kinds of grant and excluded training see shorturl.at/qL489. The exception is a veterinarian fronting a project investigating behavioral and physiological responses to fin clipping). This reflects the nature of applications received, and it is of course correct that awards for projects requiring detailed knowledge of scientific design are headed by those competent in this area, and is a reflection of active involvement by academics—notably, though, a large proportion of these awards focused on developing <5dpf embryos models, not on the benefits to fish as ends in themselves. It is of course possible that in some cases, technologists may be actively involved behind the scenes in some cases. Nevertheless, this should be set against Colin’s contention that those often most motivated to get involved with 3Rs work that benefits zebrafish do not have the means or credibility (including knowledge of research design, for example) to get the most desirable kinds of support for their work. Indeed, some may find themselves unable to apply for certain funding streams because of the non-academic classification of their roles and career trajectory, whatever their competence as scientists.

There seems certainly to be a niche or gap to be bridged between the local and less “science-heavy” 3Rs initiatives and those requiring special expertise in research design and data analyses, as well as specialist and expensive technologies. Developing and validating replacement models, for example, tends to be very “science-heavy”. Speaking of the importance of collaboration and capacity building in this area, one of our informants also described the need for what he called the “dovetailing” of interests, in particular, finding ways of bringing the scientific nous and technologies of academic researchers to bear on husbandry related problems in ways which could benefit everyone; scientists, technologists and fish. For example, the use of fluorescent markers of neuronal activity, as routinely done in many labs, could help to answer basic issues related to husbandry and welfare, such as the identification of appropriate endpoints (interview with Farol, aquarium facility manager, 21 March 2018). Efforts in this direction, however, face at least two general problems. Firstly, there is the problem of a lack of incentives for academics on a conventional scientific career path, given the lower status of such questions in the hierarchies embedded in the scientific reward system, and the relative ghettoisation of 3Rs and animal welfare science work generally. Secondly, the social stigma we have discussed that apparently continues to position fish as a means of achieving reductions or refinements, rather than as a focus for receiving 3Rs benefits. For Colin, at least, it is worth noting that an underlying reason for 3Rs/fish welfare research not being considered “sexy enough” (see above), is the attitude that “they’re only fish”, and thus do not warrant the attention (interview with Colin, ex-Home Office Inspector, 26 June 2019). These kinds of attitudes probably compound the basic problems of size and capacity suggested here.

4. Conclusions

While fish are rarely the “poster critters” of animal welfare campaigns, the welfare of aquatic species, in general, is increasingly becoming an object of social interest and concern, as well as scientific relevance. Moreover, given that ASPA makes no distinction between fish and other forms of vertebrate life in its definition of a protected animal, and that scientific opinion about the capacity of fish to suffer seriously is mounting, there is an ethical, regulatory and scientific remit for focusing on barriers to implementing and developing the 3Rs for fish. In this paper, we have shown how qualitative social science offers useful insights into the social drivers that could be influencing thinking, prioritisation and implementation of the 3Rs with respect to laboratory fish welfare.

Firstly, we highlighted the importance of narratives about knowledge, consensus and disagreement. In our examples, limited knowledge of what constitutes appropriate environmental enrichment for zebrafish and disagreements over the ability of fish to feel pain and suffer, can hamper the implementation of refinements, despite regulatory encouragement. Furthermore, an awareness of where knowledge about what constitutes “good welfare” is produced and who it is promoted by can be as important as the knowledge itself in shaping its reception and the consequent implementation (or not) of refinements. This is seen, for example, in the division between those with a lot of experience with mammals who are inclined towards “putting things in tanks” as they are used to seeing “things in cages”, and those who have worked mainly with fish and suspect other who suggest more subtle enrichments such as lighting regimes and water chemistry are more important. We also described how the existence of controversy on the subject of fish pain could be an underlying factor explaining the unwillingness amongst those responsible for implementing analgesia protocols, for example. We also proposed that there is a kind of scale of sentience, which ranks fish below other vertebrates and which shapes attitudes to fish welfare despite having little or no objective basis.

Secondly, we discussed how relationships and attitudes to fish, as well as beliefs about the extent to which those attitudes are shared with a wider ‘socially sentient’ public, may be important to mediating decisions about their use, their deployment as an alternative for other animals with the same legal status (such as mice) and, by extension, the urgency and relevance of 3Rs initiatives. For example, we noted how the apparently relatively low priority given to fish welfare amongst animal welfare and rights organisations is often linked to a perceived lack of broader public concern. Regulators may also follow suit, despite their best intentions and efforts. In this context, those who work with fish in laboratory settings often act as advocates for fish to be treated equally with other animal denizens of the lab. However, even within laboratory settings technologists, researchers and vets can struggle to relate to fish and find themselves questioning the extent to which they have internalized an image of fish as somehow less sentient and capable of suffering than mammals. This highlights the importance of a degree of self-awareness and reflexivity amongst those responsible for assessing fish welfare and implementing the 3Rs (already evident in the words of many of the those we spoke to) about how practices are shaped by social beliefs, experiences and values as well as scientific expertise.

Finally, we noted how more general trends towards a lack of investment and research interests in the 3Rs, recognised across the animal research community, are compounded by specific issues associated with the overall capacity of zebrafish community to engage successfully in 3Rs initiatives. In this context, we also presented the claim that zebrafish have not hitherto been perceived as “sexy enough” to attract the attention of enough credible experts in animal welfare science and animal behavior who are interested in pursuing 3Rs-related work. In our experience, moreover, many 3Rs-relevant welfare and husbandry initiatives are also driven “from the bottom up” by technologists and aquarium facility managers, not only by academic research scientists. This led to our informants highlighting the need for further collaboration and capacity building in this area, bringing the scientific knowledge and approaches of academic researchers to bear on husbandry related problems in particular, in partnership with motivated technical staff.

Acknowledgments

Penny Hawkins, Hibba Mazhary and colleagues, collaborators and advisors on the Animal Research Nexus project, including Alexandra Palmer who helped conduct some of the interviews cited in this research. We would also especially like to thank everyone who gave their time to participate in our research, who shared their knowledge, and who often hosted us at their places of work.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, R.M. and B.G.; methodology, R.M. and B.G.; investigation, R.M. and B.G.; writing—original draft preparation, R.M. and B.G.; writing—review and editing, R.M. and B.G.; project administration, B.G.; funding acquisition, B.G. and the Animal Research Nexus team.

This research was funded by the Wellcome Trust, grant number 205393/A/16/Z as a part of the Animal Research Nexus project. The APC was funded by a Wellcome Trust Block Grant to the University of Oxford.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

The Issue of Overfishing in the United States

See the remediation.

My paper is addressed towards an audience of environmentalists; it is essential that environmentalists are taught about overfishing so they can teach others and gain support for the movement to end overfishing. They are the group that is dedicated to help make the Earth a healthier place. It is necessary for this audience to read this paper because it will aid them in gaining knowledge on overfishing, which too often receives scant attention compared to climate change. In addition, environmentalists tend to have strong views on topics related to saving the Earth. Thus, if more environmentalists become aware of the exigence of the issue, more effort may be used to solve the problem. My secondary audience includes U.S. residents, ages 16 and above, who are also willing to join in on the efforts to help combat this issue. Even though United States is one of the nations that has done the most towards stopping the issue of overfishing, it is not enough. With this information, I believe that my audience will try to combat overfishing by taking hands-on approaches such as habitat restoration.

My introduction to habitat restoration left me sweating and exhausted. In 2017 I traveled down the East Coast in three minivans on a mission trip to Georgia with sixteen other people from my church. We were assigned to a variety of service projects during our week and a half stay, ranging from fixing homes for veterans to volunteering at an oyster restoration project. The latter was my favorite. I did not really understand the importance of what I was doing at the time, but I enjoyed the camaraderie and the exercise despite shoveling oyster shells for what it seemed like an endless amount of time. Because the work was so tiring, we shifted off our jobs to others in an assembly line. I went from shoveling the oyster shells to dumping them on tables, filling up bags with the shells, tying knots, and throwing them over a fence into a pile with hundreds of other filled bags. I found out later that we were helping to repopulate seafood, save the environment by filtering the water, and restore some people’s livelihoods by protecting their jobs. And we were only a tiny piece in a huge East Coast operation. My experience led me to investigate the issue of overfishing and to understand how much it demands our attention.

Overfishing is defined as the taking of fish at too high of a rate for the species to be replenished the next year. In the past, fisheries did not consider their effects on fish populations and the environment, which led to many populations getting overfished as fishermen exceeded environmental limits to gain a greater profit. The first documented case of overfishing was in the 1800s when people realized that whale blubber could be used to create oil for their lamps. This created a huge burst of fishing for whales to the point of endangerment (Palliser 10). Even after this instance, Americans still overfished many species because of their desire to gain more wealth. Another instance is George’s Bank’s Haddock stocks, which were overfished for decades before the 1990s, as a result of them being a necessity for New England fishermen. These stocks were the number one source of profit for New England fisheries, and they were generating over 400 million pounds of fish each year. This continuing trend put a huge strain on the George’s Bank stock, which led to the species yield reaching a record low--leading the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to name the species officially collapsed in the 1990s (Brodziak et al. 123).

Due to these increasingly harmful instances of overfishing, a method of monitoring fish stocks was developed globally called the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). The MSY is the absolute maximum harvest of fish that should be taken annually from a certain population of fish for the species to regenerate to the previous amount or higher for the next year, yet many people see it as a goal rather than a limit. Because this did not work to end overfishing, the United States passed the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCM) in 1976 to initiate an annual catch limit for fisheries. This act also extended U.S jurisdiction, which required that foreign ships follow the conservation laws (Powell, 2019). In 1976 before the MSFCM was passed, foreign ships were catching 10 times as much as the US fishermen, which greatly contributed to the overfishing of the entire area. Just after one year of the act passing, the United States started creating more fishing vessels to catch fish in this area since foreign competitors left and did not want to abide by the regulations. By 1992, the entire area was being controlled with U.S. vessels following strict regulations, and all foreign vessels were gone, choosing to fish in an unregulated area instead (Powell 2019). This proved to be beneficial because in 2016, only 8% out of the 390 annual catch limits were exceeded. However, even with maximum sustainable yields and the catch limits, the world’s total fishing yield continued to decrease after it reached the highest yield in 1989 of about 90 million tons (“Overfishing”).  Considering overfishing is not the only problem leading to decreased yields, establishing a strict MSY will not be enough by itself to accomplish reaching the supply of fish we once had.

The supply of fish continues to decrease over time, and this has a huge impact on many people within the United States. The average American eats 15.5 pounds of fish annually, which is a number that increases each year (“Americans”). Fish is a huge staple throughout America, and the declining fish yields present a problem for most people that enjoy fish as a staple in their diets and others for whom fish is a necessity to include because of allergies or religious reasons. It is not just those who enjoy fish that this issue impacts, but it also the fishermen in the US that rely on fish to provide for their families. Coastal fisheries support about 1.8 million jobs nationally, but this number is declining because the lowering ability for fishermen to make a living off the smaller fish populations.

In this paper I will show that overfishing is an issue that needs to be addressed because of the likelihood of great harm to fish populations, those who rely on fishing as an occupation, and all who benefit from fish being a part of their diet. First, I will address how bycatch is one reason why overfishing has occurred. Secondly, I examine the negative impacts of the direct loss of fish upon consumers and fishermen. Then I tie in information about how the US fishermen are impacted negatively when foreign competitors are constantly overfishing, making it harder for Americans to sell their fish. Some elected representatives representing land-locked states may not be convinced that this issue of overfishing is important enough for them to address, and therefore I examine information as to show how this issue effects more than just coastal environments. Although prior laws have been passed to combat overfishing, they have not solved the problem. I conclude by offering a way for non-environmentalists to assist by actively rebuilding habitats and eating sustainably.

The most obvious effect of overfishing that proves change is needed is the direct loss of fish from aquatic ecosystems. Nearly 90% of global marine fish are overfished or fully fished, meaning that the stocks are being fished at their MSY or even more (Shaver and Yozell 6). Commercial overfishing especially has impacted such a large species of fish in the oceans, with the result being that only a small percentage of species can be labeled as healthy stocks. A primary reason for this catastrophe is bycatch. Bycatch is most commonly defined as the accidental capture of a non-targeted species, but it can also include species that were hit by fishing boats, or animals that were entangled by fishing nets, even if they managed to escape (Read et al. 164). Bycatch presents a huge problem of overfishing to marine animals, damaging the aquatic ecosystems. In fact, bycatch is the greatest threat to whales, dolphins, and turtles, especially the species of Albatrosses and many species of turtles, who even face extinction as a result of frequently being caught as bycatch (Read et al. 164). To emphasize the extent of how many whales get impacted by bycatch, it is important to note that 70% of North Atlantic Right whales have been entangled at least once in their lives, and it impairs their ability to live (Read et al. 167). When whales are impacted by bycatch, so is the plankton population which can overpopulate and harm other types of fish and aquatic plant life that rely indirectly on the whales. To some extent it does not matter if bycatch is purposeful because the damage is still being done.

Overfishing jeopardizes the ability of the U.S. consumers to take advantage of the health benefits offered by fish. It has been determined that fish are a healthier source of protein compared to red meat. For instance, a three-ounce serving of beef can reach up to 186 calories with more fats (Arnarson). Meanwhile, a three-ounce serving of flounder can be as low as 60 calories with other minerals such as iron zinc and potassium (“Fish”). In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA publish the “Dietary guidelines” every five years, in which they recommended that Americans should double their intake of seafood (Nylen 759). In the United States, and even throughout the word, the middle class has been growing exponentially, which means that more people are able to afford a wider variety of foods, which includes the healthier option of fish (Shaver and Yozell 10). This increasing demand for fish can be fulfilled in a sustainable way, but currently these sustainable practices are not put into play, which will cause negative effects for humans and the fish. For example, the USDA creates a “Choose My Plate” website. It makes seafood recommendations for good sources of protein, yet it ignores the fact that their list includes recommendations for fish that are under intense fishing pressure (Nylen 762). We will soon reach a point when our demand is too high, and the stock populations are too low for our demands for fish to be met.

But the direct loss of fish is not the only negative impact of overfishing, and consumers are not the only people affected. A second impact of overfishing that proves its urgency is its effect on the jobs of fishermen. Because many of the fish eaten in the United States are imported, a large strain is placed on US fishermen to maintain enough sales to provide for their families throughout the year. Consider the shrimpers in North Carolina, which used to be the most profitable state among the Southern Shrimp Alliance Members in 2000. But, due to the growing supply of imported shrimp, there has been a steady decline of about 50% in shrimp prices for North Carolina (Andreatta and Parlier 182). As overfishing increases abroad, it produces a highly negative impact on the economy of the US by making it harder to live as a US fisherman. A huge part of this is due to illegal dumping of shrimp into the US by Thailand, China, Vietnam, and India (Shaver and Yozell 11). When these countries dump such large amounts of shrimp into the US, their shrimp tends to have lower costs because of their ability to sell in bulk.

Foreign overfishing creates a burdensome effect on fishermen by increasing the difficulty for US fishermen to sell their catch. For instance, fishing had always been a huge part of Carteret County in North Carolina in terms of occupation. Up until the 1990s, a commercial fisherman could have provided comfortably for their family on a full-time job (Andreatta and Parlier 180). This is no longer the case, which can be shown through the fact that there has been a 50% decline in fishermen in Carteret County from 1999 to 2006. With the increasing regulations within the US such as the annual yield limits set by the Stevens-Magnusson Act in combination with the foreign competition, commercial fishermen in Carteret County are being marginalized.

Another example of foreign overfishing affecting US fishermen is in Gloucester Massachusetts, where a catch-share management regulation was passed, limiting the amount of fish that could be legally caught, but exceptions were granted that created additional hurdles beyond the regulation. Under this policy, fishermen could buy “shares” of each other’s total allowable catch, presenting a problem for smaller fishermen who might not process enough capital to buy other’s shares (“Overfishing is”). Dave Marciano was one such fishermen. He fished commercially in Gloucester for three decades until he was forced to sell his fishing permit because the catch-share program became too expensive for him to participate in (“Overfishing is”).

Another way in which overfishing and even policies designed to combat overfishing harm U.S. commercial fishermen is by forcing fishermen to adapt to seasonal fluctuations of species. For example, in the South during January, the best species for commercial fishing are Specks and Sunshine, but as the calendar transitions to March, the best species to fish include Bass and Bluegill (“Seasonal”). The cost of production for multiple species surpasses the profits that these fishermen make because the overfishing in other countries provides American consumers with cheaper fish. Most consumers will not spend the extra cost to purchase fish from the US, thereby forcing many US fishermen out of business.

It is not just U.S. policies that have impaired American fishermen’s success. International policies, which are not as restrictive as the U.S. would have liked, also impair American fishermen’s livelihoods. One example is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), passed in 1994, which stated that member nations had exclusive jurisdiction up to 12 nautical miles outside each coastal state. The US refused to sign it in 1976 because their own Magnuson-Stevens Act, their jurisdiction extended exclusive jurisdiction 200 nautical miles (“The Law”). The US did not want to risk having their jurisdiction shortened as a result of an international agreement.

Pirate fishing is an additional source of global political tension in U.S. fisheries. Pirate fishing refers to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and it is a huge problem worldwide. Since so much of the fish sold in the United States is imported, the US is especially vulnerable to having IUU fish imported; it was estimated that 25 to 30% of wild-caught seafood imported in the United States was illegally caught (Willette 25).

The misuse and overuse of specific fishing techniques have also contributed largely to overfishing. Dredging and trawling are two of the most harmful. A prime example of the former, and its consequences, is occurring in the Chesapeake Bay. The collapse of eastern oysters in the Bay is one of the largest declines of documented marine species, and the primary cause is overfishing. In the 1700s, a traveler exclaimed how populous oysters were in the Chesapeake Bay. There were so many that the ships had to carefully navigate through them (Wilberg et al. 131). These oysters became a resource that was essential to the success of fisheries, to the extent that Maryland had the largest fishery in the United States in the late 1800s because of the abundance of oysters (Wilberg et al. 131). But when fisheries obtain so many oysters at such high of a rate, oyster fishing no longer is sustainable, and it leads to population depletion. Due to excessive overfishing caused by fishermen not thinking about the future, the oyster harvests rapidly declined during the early 1900s. Ever since then, oysters have remained at low levels and have not been able to make large recoveries (Wilberg et al. 132). The reasons that this overfishing occurred was because of the fishing technique called dredging. Dredging is a method for fishing that has a large rake-like object that is towed along the bottom of the seafloor (Palliser 11). This is a common method for harvesting oysters because it smashes the oyster beds, allowing the oysters to break off and be captured. Therefore, not only is this directly depleting the population of the oysters through fishing, it is also destroying the habitats. The dredges remove shells and live oysters from their compact oyster beds. This turns more of the beds into sediment, which makes it much harder for oyster species to repopulate when so much of their habitat has already been destroyed. A study found that dredging for only two hours can reduce reef height by six centimeters (Wilberg et al. 141). Considering that fisheries are harvesting oysters for much longer than this, the environmental damage adds up to create a drastically negative effect on the species’ ability to repopulate the following years. Dredging for oysters is not the only fishing technique that hurts the environment; another such technique is trawling. Trawling drags a net along the bottom of the seafloor, opposed to dredging which tows a metal rake (Palliser 11). Trawling disturbs the habitats of various fish because as it runs along the sea floor to catch the fish, it disrupts any vegetation it comes across, such as grass, seaweed, or even coral (Palliser 11). Trawling and dredging are employed liberally because they capture as much seafood as possible with minimal effort. Sadly, dredging and trawling are two fishing techniques that result in overfishing.

Although recreational fishing a small-scale contributor to overfishing, it can impact the environment in harmful ways. One such way is the overfishing of predator populations. A case study conducted in Cape Cod addresses that once the predator populations were overfished via recreational fishing, it led to the increased die-off of shoreline vegetation on the marsh (Altieri et al. 1402). In other words, recreational fishermen, also known as anglers, overharvested the fish from the top of the food chain, which resulted in a dramatic increase of the herbivorous crab, Sesarma (Altieri et al. 1402). Without predators, the Sesarma were free to repopulate and eat freely, which resulted in the die-off of the shorelines. This destruction of the salt marshes is extremely harmful to the environment because salt marshes provide a lot of beneficial factors for humans, animals, and ecosystem health. For instance, salt marshes act as a buffer from shoreline erosion and they are homes to a variety of food sources such as shrimp and finfish (US Department). The Cape Cod study is one of many that suggest overfishing, including recreational fishing, can have devastating consequences.

Despite all the evidence showing how urgent of an issue overfishing is, not all people agree. Steve Murawski, a fisheries biologist and marine ecologist at the University of South Florida, argues that overfishing is no longer a danger. He strictly states, “For the first time in at least a century, US fishermen are not taking too much of any species from the sea” (“Overfishing is”). Murawski claims that the Gulf of Maine cod have recovered even though fishermen were technically overfishing still.  He has watched the Magnuson-Stevens Act in New England be enforced, which imposes strict catch limits. Therefore, he believes that the right levels of fishing have been hit (“Overfishing is”). Just because management techniques applied in one region (in this case, New England) have been successful does not mean that they will be successful elsewhere even if they are applied. A report published in 2013 disputes Murawski’s 2011 claim that overfishing would no longer be a problem. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), over 70% of the world’s fish species are fully overfished or drained, and this overfishing trend is continuing. The FAO also reports that illegal fishing is increasing, which also shows signs that undocumented overfishing has continued (Nuttall).

One specific solution that could be implemented on local, national, and global scales--and is particularly beneficial--is habitat restoration. Coral restoration would be a great project to get involved in because it helps rejuvenate the habitats of fish and sea animals that rely on coral for their ecosystem to live in. Coral restoration can include growing coral in land-based nurseries or transporting coral from healthy to degraded reefs. When coral is rebuilt, it allows for more fish to repopulate because their habitats are improving, and, as a result, there is more livable space. This habitat restoration solution can also be enacted in bays where overfishing has caused the depletion of oysters and oyster beds. By restoring the beds, people can help to make bays healthier, while providing a habitat where oysters can repopulate. This was something that I was able to get involved with my church members by going on a mission trip for a couple of days. Volunteering, even for minimal time, for a restoration project could provide lasting benefits to that area.

 A case study on the habitat loss in the Upper Chesapeake Bay claims that the most effective strategy to rehabilitate oyster populations includes the focus on restoration activities (Wilberg et al. 141). By providing improved habitats for different sea animals, restoration projects can help to increase populations of these species. Higher populations would make it much more difficult for humans to overfish. So, if more people get involved in habitat restoration, it could help to provide better conditions for species to repopulate. An even easier solution that individuals can enact is to simply take into consideration which species of fish they are eating, where it is from, and how it is caught. The Monterey Bay Aquarium creates a consumer guide which places fish into one of three categories, “Best Choices”, “Good Alternatives”, and “Avoid” (“Consumer”). This helps people to pick seafood that is fished or farmed in a sustainable way, to help support a healthy aquatic ecosystem. If people decide to eat fish more sustainably, it could prevent the consumption of fish that are overfished or threatened. This would help to reduce overfishing by diverting consumer demand away from species that are at risk of exhaustion. I acknowledge that these ideas represent short-time solutions, but it is important for more of us to stay active in solving the issue on a local level while governmental and global legislation to stop overfishing is underway.

The issue of overfishing is often overlooked worldwide because other environmental issues, such as climate change and pollution, capture the global focus of scientists and activists; however, overfishing in the United States deserves our attention. What is being done to combat overfishing is not enough, and more people who care about the environment need to get involved with this cause and create change. It is time that we stop disregarding overfishing and do something to save the fish, our environment, and ourselves.

Bibliography

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“Americans Added Nearly 1 Pound of Seafood to Their Diet in 2015.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , www.noaa.gov/media-release/americans-added-nearly-1-pound-of-seafood-to-their-diet-in-2015.

Anderson, Monica. “How Americans View Environmental Issues.” Pew Research Center , Pew Research Center, 20 Apr. 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/20/for-earth-day-heres-how-americans-view-environmental-issues/.

Andreatta, Susan, and Anne Parlier. “The Political Ecology of Small-Scale Commercial Fishermen in Carteret County, North Carolina.” Human Organization , vol. 69, no. 2, 2010, pp. 180–191. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/44148601.

Arnarson, Atli. “Beef 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Effects,” Healthline, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/beef.

Boesch, Donald, et al. "Factors in the Decline of Coastal Ecosystems." Science, vol. 293, no. 5535, 2001, p. 1589. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A78545648/OVIC?u=umd_um&sid=OVIC&xid=63e42be0. Accessed 11 Nov. 2019.

Brodziak, Jon, et al. “The Nascent Recovery of the Georges Bank Haddock Stock.” Fisheries Research , vol. 94, no. 2, Nov. 2008, pp. 123–132. EBSCOhost , doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2008.03.009.

Brooke, Samantha G., et al. “Estimating Overall Fish Bycatch in US Commercial Fisheries.” Marine Fisheries Review , vol. 74, no. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 1–5. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=85444117&site=ehost-live.

“Commercial Fishing Methods.” Sustainable Fisheries UW , https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/seafood-101/commercial-fishing-methods/.

“Community and Environment.” Washington State Department of Health , https://www.doh.wa.gov/communityandenvironment/food/fish/healthbenefits.

“Consumer Guides.” Printable Consumer Guides with Seafood and Sushi Recommendations from the Seafood Watch Program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium , https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/consumer-guides.

“Fish Nutrition Facts.” Wholey's , https://wholey.com/fish-nutrition-facts/.

Florio, Jason. “The Pirate Port.” The Virginia Quarterly Review , vol. 86, no. 1, 2010, pp. 122–137. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/26446342.

“India Is Top Exporter of Shrimp to US for Fourth Straight Year.” SeafoodSource Official Media, https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/india-is-top-exporter-of-shrimp-to-us-for-fourth-straight-year.

Nussman, Michael, et al. "The recreational fisher's perspective." Science , vol. 307, no. 5715, 2005, p. 1560+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints , https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A131007055/OVIC?u=umd_um&sid=OVIC&xid=8e917923.

Nuttall, Nick. "Commercial Fishing Is a Threat to Marine Biodiversity." Biodiversity, edited by Debra A. Miller, Greenhaven Press, 2013. Current Controversies. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010209290/OVIC?u=umd_um&sid=OVIC&xid=47f5c0a6. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019. Originally published as "Overfishing: A Threat to Marine Biodiversity,".

Nylen, Nell Green. “Why Federal Dietary Guidelines Should Acknowledge the Food-Choice / Environment Nexus: Examining the Recommendation to Eat More Seafood.” Ecology Law Quarterly , vol. 40, no. 4, 2013, pp. 759–794. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/24113684.

 “Overfishing.” National Geographic , 29 July 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/critical-issues-overfishing/.

“Overfishing Is No Longer a Danger to Oceans." Endangered Oceans , edited by Helga Schier and Lynn M. Zott, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints , https://link-gale-com.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/apps/doc/EJ3010130496/OVIC?u=umd_um&sid=OVIC&xid=3caf6627. Originally published as "Top Scientist Sees End to Overfishing," Gloucester (MA) Times, 9 Jan. 2011.

“Oyster Restoration.” Chesapeake Bay Foundation , https://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/programs-initiatives/virginia/oyster-restoration/.

Palliser, Janna. “Not so Many Fish in the Sea.” Science Scope , vol. 36, no. 5, 2013, pp. 10–13. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/43184263.

Pikitch, Ellen K. “The Risks of Overfishing.” Science, vol. 338, no. 6106, 2012, pp. 474–475. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41703781.

Pinsky, Malin L., and David Byler. “Fishing, Fast Growth and Climate Variability Increase the Risk of Collapse.” Proceedings: Biological Sciences , vol. 282, no. 1813, 2015, pp. 1–9. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/43602273.

Powell, John K. “Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act: In Pursuit of Tight Lines and Full Nets.” Florida Bar Journal , vol. 93, no. 6, Nov. 2019, pp. 47–50. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=139299279&site=ehost-live.

Read, Andrew J., et al. “Bycatch of Marine Mammals in US and Global Fisheries.” Conservation Biology , vol. 20, no. 1, 2006, pp. 163–169. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/3591162.

Safford, Thomas G., and Lawrence C. Hamilton. “Demographic Change and Shifting Views about Marine Resources and the Coastal Environment in Downeast Maine.” Population and Environment, vol. 33, no. 4, 2012, pp. 284–303. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/41487569.

“Seasonal Fishing Calendar.” Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission, https://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/fishing-tips/seasons/.

“SECORE International: Coral Restoration.” SECORE, http://www.secore.org/site/corals/detail/coral-restoration.20.html.

Shaver, Amanda, and Sally Yozell. Casting a Wider Net: The Security Implications of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing. Stimson Center , 2018. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep15848.

“The Law Of Overfishing.” Nolo , 24 July 2014, https://www.lawfirms.com/resources/estate-planning/the-law-of-overfishing.

Tom Gogola. "Bycatch 22; As a twisted consequence of overfishing regulations, commercial fishermen have no choice but to catch sea bass, flounder, monkfish, and tuna-and throw them dead back into the sea.". New York Magazine , July 18, 2011. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:539H-VY51-JCDG-X548-00000-00&context=1516831.

US Department of Commerce, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What Is a Salt Marsh?” NOAA's National Ocean Service , 1 June 2013, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/saltmarsh.html.

“What Is Bycatch?” What Is Bycatch? | Bycatch Management Information System (BMIS) , https://www.bmis-bycatch.org/about-bmis/what-is-bycatch.

Wilberg, Michael J., et al. “Overfishing, Disease, Habitat Loss, and Potential Extirpation of Oysters in Upper Chesapeake Bay.” Marine Ecology Progress Series , vol. 436, 2011, pp. 131–144. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24875491.

Willette, Demian A., and Samantha H. Cheng. “Delivering on Seafood Traceability under the New U. Import Monitoring Program.” AMBIO - A Journal of the Human Environment , vol. 47, no. 1, Feb. 2018, pp. 25–30. EBSCOhost , doi:10.1007/s13280-017-0936-4.

Articles copyright © 2024 the original authors. No part of the contents of this Web journal may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the author or the Academic Writing Program of the University of Maryland. The views expressed in these essays do not represent the views of the Academic Writing Program or the University of Maryland.

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Here are some important tips to consider for your next summer fishing trip:

• Consider the type of fish you want to catch and choose a spot known for that species.
• Learn about the regulations: There are regulations in place to help protect fish populations. Be sure to research the regulations for the body of water you will be fishing in before you go. You may need to purchase a fishing license.
• Get the right gear: You need a fishing rod, reel, line, hooks, sinkers, and bait or lures. You may also consider getting a tackle box to store your gear.
• Be patient: Fishing can relax, but catching fish takes time. Be patient and enjoy the outdoors.

Hope this helps with your next fishing excursion!

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Who Pays for Rising Health Care Prices? Evidence from Hospital Mergers

We analyze the economic consequences of rising health care prices in the US. Using exposure to price increases caused by horizontal hospital mergers as an instrument, we show that rising prices raise the cost of labor by increasing employer-sponsored health insurance premiums. A 1% increase in health care prices lowers both payroll and employment at firms outside the health sector by approximately 0.4%. At the county level, a 1% increase in health care prices reduces per capita labor income by 0.27%, increases flows into unemployment by approximately 0.1 percentage points (1%), lowers federal income tax receipts by 0.4%, and increases unemployment insurance payments by 2.5%. The increases in unemployment we observe are concentrated among workers earning between $20,000 and $100,000 annually. Finally, we estimate that a 1% increase in health care prices leads to a 1 per 100,000 population (2.7%) increase in deaths from suicides and overdoses. This implies that approximately 1 in 140 of the individuals who become fully separated from the labor market after health care prices increase die from a suicide or drug overdose.

We thank Joseph Altonji, Steven Berry, Zachary Bleemer, Anne Case, Angus Deaton, Amy Finkelstein, Joshua Gottlieb, Jason Hockenberry, Anders Humlum, Dmitri Koustas, Neale Mahoney, Alex Mas, Costas Meghir, Fiona Scott Morton, Chima Ndumele, Seth Zimmerman, and many seminar participants for extremely valuable feedback. We benefited enormously from excellent research assistance provided by Felix Aidala, Krista Duncan, James Han, Mirko De Maria, Kelly Qiu, Shambhavi Tiwari, and Mai-Anh Tran. This project received financial support from Arnold Ventures and the National Institute on Aging (Grant P01-AG019783). We acknowledge the assistance of the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and its data contributors, Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare, in providing the claims data analyzed in this study. HCCI had a right to review this research to guarantee we adhered to reporting requirements for the data related to patient confidentiality and the ban on identifying individual providers. Neither HCCI nor the data contributors could limit publication for reasons other than the violation of confidentiality requirements around patients and providers, nor could they require edits to the manuscript as a condition of publication. The opinions expressed in this article and any errors are those of the authors alone. This research was conducted while some of the authors were employees at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or the official positions of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Any taxpayer data used in this research was kept in a secured Treasury or IRS data repository, and all results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information has been disclosed. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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103 Hunting Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for good hunting essay topics? The oldest known human activity is worth exploring!

🏆 Best Hunting Essay Examples

📌 hunting argumentative essay topics, 🏹 interesting hunting essay topics, 👍 good essay topics on hunting, 🦌 controversial hunting topics to write about, ❓ questions about hunting.

Hunting has a long history. Many scientists agree that it was the thing that influenced human evolution. Early humans started making and using stone tools to make hunting more effective. This activity was long critical for people’s survival and still remains critical in some places of the world. However, in developed countries it is now used mostly for recreation.

In a hunting essay, you might want to focus on the reasons why hunting is good or bad for the environment. One more idea is to discuss if hunting should be allowed. Another controversial topic is the ethical aspects of this activity. Finally, you can collect hunting safety tips.

If you are looking for hunting essay topics, you’re in the right place. In this article, you’ll find great hunting topics to research, paper titles, and hunting essay examples for your inspiration.

• Human Behavior and Psychology in “The Good Will Hunting” by Gus Van Sant The second important person with him is his best friend Chukie, who he tells that he would love to be a laborer for the rest of his life.
• Hunting and Gathering Agricultural practices were implemented 10,000 years ago, and it has since played a vital role in the replacement of hunting and the gathering as a way of livelihood. In ancient times, hunting was seen as […]
• Ken Liu’s “Good Hunting” and The Perfect Match This essay aims to explore the elements of defamiliarization that are evident in the two works and to summarize the points to show how the use of this technique differs in the stories.
• What Theory or Theories of Counseling are Observed in the Film Good Will Hunting? It is crucial to state that there are too many therapists who refused to work with Will Hunting because of a number of reasons, the main of which was the character’s contempt to them.
• History of Hunting: Evolution and Improvement Contrary to the modern trend of hunting being more of a sport, during the pre-civilization era hunting was one of the main means of survival.
• The Change of Canadian Indigenous Hunting History Despite the advancement of this source of livelihood, the need to regulate the utilization of natural resources, replenish the food supply, and maintain the land formed a critical part of the Indigenous peoples’ practices.
• The Problem of the Whale Hunting It should be noted that ordinary citizens can participate actively in the reduction and subsequent elimination of this trade. This way, control and a sense of direction are instilled in the whaling society.
• “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”: The Bedroom and Hunting Scenes Consequently, from this point on, the narrative splits into two parallel lines that show the reader the perspective of the lord and Gawain throughout the day.
• Hunting Netiquette Violations This is a message attached to people’s mails without their consent. An example of this violation is a word-for-word plagiarism.
• Licensing of Hunting in the United States The positive effects linked with the exercise include the revenue it generates for the economy through the sale of animal products and the reintroduction of game species that were previously phased out by poaching activities.
• Allowing Licensing of Hunting in the United States The statistics and view on the partial data are essential to verify and defend other information from other researches in the study about the nature and extent of hunting alongside the journey on hunting in […]
• The Impacts of Hunting Prohibitions on People This paper highlights the article’s credibility by proving that the authors carried out research and shows its usefulness to readers and policymakers through various cases on the impacts of hunting prohibitions among the communities.
• Ethical Aspect of Hunting: Dilemma of Hunting Ethics This paper illustrates the ethical aspects of hunting on the basis of human as the hunter versus animals as the hunted.
• The Wild Boar Hunting Experience Not the most pleasant experience in the world, rubbing mud and whatever other kind of natural goo I could find in various strategic spots on my body, but I did the best I could and […]
• Hunting in Wildlife Refuges in California In addition, the lack of regulations and the prohibition of hunting in wildlife refuges in its entirety has led to the overpopulation of certain species and the introduction of imbalance to the ecosystem, with the […]
• Hunting, Death, and Free Will: “No Country for Old Men” by the Coen Brothers From the beginning, the directors of the film warn the viewer that the movie is about at least two things: hunting and death.
• Environmental Issue: Hunting on Whales The case study at hand presents an environmental issue involving the Makah tribe that had hunted whales over two thousand years until the 1920s when this practice had to be discontinued due to the decline […]
• Church Role in Witch Hunting Despite the fact that a lot of research has been done on the history of witch prosecution and the part of the Church in it, it is still debatable whether its power exceeded the influence […]
• Hunting, Its Moral and Environmental Issues The first fact refers to the idea that there is nothing more natural than hunting, and that is why it is normal.
• Hunting a Christmas Tree by Barbara Dean This story is an amazing combination of natural beauty, human pretentiousness, and despair that may spoil even the most beautiful events in a human life like Christmas.”Hunting a Christmas Tree” is Dean’s personal position on […]
• Gender Studies: Gathering and Hunting Abilities For instance, the hunting skills of men can be attributed to their being dominant in the arm simply because they have a better chance of hitting the target than women do because of their better […]
• Whaling in Japan: Justifiable by Culture? The gap in reasoning when it comes to utilizing the concept of “scientific research” as a means of justifying the hunting of various whale species by Japanese whalers is the obvious fact that you do […]
• No Excuse: Whale Hunting in Japan When examining the basis of the treaty established by the International Whaling Commission in relation to the protection of the whale species it can be seen that the entirety of the document was meant to […]
• The Growing Use of Firearms in Sports and Leisure Hunting Today
• The Hunting and Gathering Societies of The Kung, Shoshone, and Mbuti Tribes
• Prey Are Better Protected From Visually Hunting Predators
• Wildlife Valuation: The Collective Good Aspect of Hunting
• The Effects Of Hunting And Fishing On The Economy
• The Norwegian And Japanese Position On Permitting The Hunting
• The Negative Effects of Stopping Hunting and Trophy Hunting to the Animal Ecosystem
• Trophy Hunting and Its Benefits in Economic and Conservation Significance of the Trophy Hunting Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa
• The Kung, Shoshone, And Mbuti Tribes: Hunting And Gathering Societies
• The Benefits of Hunting for Food in Hunting, Climate Change and the Future of Food, an Article by Nick Romero
• The Deer Hunter: The Unintended Effects of Hunting Regulations
• Trophy Hunting : A Common Controversial Issue Among People
• Seal Hunting in Canada’s Coast Angered Animal Rights Activists
• The Symbiotic Lives of People in The Hunting Snake, a Poem by Judith Wright
• Traditional Hunting and Its Relevance to Eskimo Societies
• The Reactive Attachment Disorder of Will in Good Will Hunting, a Movie by Gus Van Sant
• The Role and Contributions of Hunting and the Issues Surrounding the Sport
• The Importance Of Hunting In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
• The Necessity of Legalizing Wolf Hunting in Wisconsin
• The Traits of the People of Hunting and Gathering Societies
• Types Of Hypoallergenic Hunting Dogs
• Why The Hunting Can It Affect The Surrounding Ecosystem
• The Economics of Hunting, Game-Preservation, and Their Legal Setting
• The Importance Of Pursuing Love Is No Different Than Hunting A Deer
• The Relationship of the Characters of Will and Skylar in the Movie Good Will Hunting
• The Intrigues of Hunting and Gathering Chimpanzees
• The Dangers and Inhumanity of Big Game Trophy Hunting
• The Effects of Mercury Contamination in Pheasants on the Value of Pheasant Hunting in Oregon
• Whaling: The Hunting Of Fin Whales In Antarctic Ocean
• Why Is Hunting Good For The Environment
• What Theory Or Theories Of Counseling Are Observed In The Film Good Will Hunting
• Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England
• The Controversy Surrounding the Bloody Sport of Fox Hunting
• Why Sport Hunting is Cruel and Unnecessary
• The Patriot Act: Hunting Terrorists or Civil Liberties
• The Hunting of People in The Most Dangerous Game, a Book by Richard Connell
• The Pros and Cons of Hunting and the Controversies Surrounding the Practice of Killing or Trapping Animals
• Witch Hunting And Branding : Rural Areas Of India
• Procreation, Fishing, and Hunting: Renewable Resources and Dynamic Planar Systems
• Valuing Characteristics Of Transferable Deer Hunting Permits In Kansas
• Social Sites: Virtual Playgrounds Or Predatory Hunting Grounds
• The Growing Importance and Value Implications of Recreational Hunting Leases to Agricultural Land Investors in America
• Shark Hunting: The Loss of an Apex Predator, and the Corruption of the Ocean Ecosystem
• The Economic Value of Lottery-rationed Recreational Hunting
• User Fees and Equity Issues in Public Hunting Expenditures: The Case of Ring-Necked Pheasant in Oregon
• The Impacts of Hunting and Gathering in the Paleolithic Period
• Whale Hunting and its Significance to the Makah Culture
• The Market Value of Ingress Rights for White-Tailed Deer Hunting in Texas
• Why Hunting Animals For Sport Shouldn’t Be Banned
• Promoting Successful Hunting and Fertility with Paleolithic Art
• How Has Hunting Changed Over the Last 100 Years?
• Why Is Animal Hunting Still Legal in Many Countries?
• What State Has the Best Hunting Laws?
• Do LED Flashlights Make Hunting Easier?
• What Are the Differences Between Hunting and Fishing?
• Will All Hunting Be Illegal in the Future?
• Is Hunting an Ethical Way to Eat?
• Why Should Fox Hunting Be Banned?
• What Damage Is Big Game Hunting Doing in Africa?
• How Can Trophy Hunting Help Many Endangered Species?
• What Would Happen if Hunting Was Not Banned in India?
• Is Hunting Good or Bad for the Environment?
• Why Is Fox Hunting Illegal in England?
• How Is Hunting in America Different Than Any Other Country in the World?
• Why Do People Get a Thrill From Hunting and Killing Animals?
• Is Sport Hunting a Breakthrough Wildlife Conservation Strategy for Africa?
• What Is the Punishment for Hunting in India?
• Should Trophy Hunting Be Banned, as It Is Just Cruelty for Entertainment?
• What Is the Best Argument for Hunting?
• Why Did Humans Begin Hunting?
• How Long Has Hunting Been Around?
• What Country in Europe Has the Best Hunting?
• How Big Is the Hunting Industry in the US?
• What Effect Does Overhunting Have on the Environment?
• How Does Subsistence Hunting Work in Alaska?
• What Are the Problems of Hunting in the US?
• Which State Has the Most Public Hunting Land in the United States?
• Should Hunting Around the World Only Be Allowed for Food?
• Where Is the Best Turkey Hunting in the World?
• What Is the Most Popular Type of Hunting?
• Animal Abuse Research Topics
• Nature vs Nurture Research Topics
• Animal Rights Research Ideas
• Entertainment Ideas
• Cruelty to Animals Titles
• Ecosystem Essay Topics
• Salem Witch Trials Research Topics
• Animal Welfare Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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A technique for more effective multipurpose robots

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Let’s say you want to train a robot so it understands how to use tools and can then quickly learn to make repairs around your house with a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver. To do that, you would need an enormous amount of data demonstrating tool use.

Existing robotic datasets vary widely in modality — some include color images while others are composed of tactile imprints, for instance. Data could also be collected in different domains, like simulation or human demos. And each dataset may capture a unique task and environment.

It is difficult to efficiently incorporate data from so many sources in one machine-learning model, so many methods use just one type of data to train a robot. But robots trained this way, with a relatively small amount of task-specific data, are often unable to perform new tasks in unfamiliar environments.

In an effort to train better multipurpose robots, MIT researchers developed a technique to combine multiple sources of data across domains, modalities, and tasks using a type of generative AI known as diffusion models.

They train a separate diffusion model to learn a strategy, or policy, for completing one task using one specific dataset. Then they combine the policies learned by the diffusion models into a general policy that enables a robot to perform multiple tasks in various settings.

In simulations and real-world experiments, this training approach enabled a robot to perform multiple tool-use tasks and adapt to new tasks it did not see during training. The method, known as Policy Composition (PoCo), led to a 20 percent improvement in task performance when compared to baseline techniques.

“Addressing heterogeneity in robotic datasets is like a chicken-egg problem. If we want to use a lot of data to train general robot policies, then we first need deployable robots to get all this data. I think that leveraging all the heterogeneous data available, similar to what researchers have done with ChatGPT, is an important step for the robotics field,” says Lirui Wang, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student and lead author of a paper on PoCo .      

Wang’s coauthors include Jialiang Zhao, a mechanical engineering graduate student; Yilun Du, an EECS graduate student; Edward Adelson, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Vision Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL); and senior author Russ Tedrake, the Toyota Professor of EECS, Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Mechanical Engineering, and a member of CSAIL. The research will be presented at the Robotics: Science and Systems Conference.

Combining disparate datasets

A robotic policy is a machine-learning model that takes inputs and uses them to perform an action. One way to think about a policy is as a strategy. In the case of a robotic arm, that strategy might be a trajectory, or a series of poses that move the arm so it picks up a hammer and uses it to pound a nail.

Datasets used to learn robotic policies are typically small and focused on one particular task and environment, like packing items into boxes in a warehouse.

“Every single robotic warehouse is generating terabytes of data, but it only belongs to that specific robot installation working on those packages. It is not ideal if you want to use all of these data to train a general machine,” Wang says.

The MIT researchers developed a technique that can take a series of smaller datasets, like those gathered from many robotic warehouses, learn separate policies from each one, and combine the policies in a way that enables a robot to generalize to many tasks.

They represent each policy using a type of generative AI model known as a diffusion model. Diffusion models, often used for image generation, learn to create new data samples that resemble samples in a training dataset by iteratively refining their output.

But rather than teaching a diffusion model to generate images, the researchers teach it to generate a trajectory for a robot. They do this by adding noise to the trajectories in a training dataset. The diffusion model gradually removes the noise and refines its output into a trajectory.

This technique, known as Diffusion Policy , was previously introduced by researchers at MIT, Columbia University, and the Toyota Research Institute. PoCo builds off this Diffusion Policy work. 

The team trains each diffusion model with a different type of dataset, such as one with human video demonstrations and another gleaned from teleoperation of a robotic arm.

Then the researchers perform a weighted combination of the individual policies learned by all the diffusion models, iteratively refining the output so the combined policy satisfies the objectives of each individual policy.

Greater than the sum of its parts

“One of the benefits of this approach is that we can combine policies to get the best of both worlds. For instance, a policy trained on real-world data might be able to achieve more dexterity, while a policy trained on simulation might be able to achieve more generalization,” Wang says.

Because the policies are trained separately, one could mix and match diffusion policies to achieve better results for a certain task. A user could also add data in a new modality or domain by training an additional Diffusion Policy with that dataset, rather than starting the entire process from scratch.

The researchers tested PoCo in simulation and on real robotic arms that performed a variety of tools tasks, such as using a hammer to pound a nail and flipping an object with a spatula. PoCo led to a 20 percent improvement in task performance compared to baseline methods.

“The striking thing was that when we finished tuning and visualized it, we can clearly see that the composed trajectory looks much better than either one of them individually,” Wang says.

In the future, the researchers want to apply this technique to long-horizon tasks where a robot would pick up one tool, use it, then switch to another tool. They also want to incorporate larger robotics datasets to improve performance.

“We will need all three kinds of data to succeed for robotics: internet data, simulation data, and real robot data. How to combine them effectively will be the million-dollar question. PoCo is a solid step on the right track,” says Jim Fan, senior research scientist at NVIDIA and leader of the AI Agents Initiative, who was not involved with this work.

This research is funded, in part, by Amazon, the Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Toyota Research Institute.

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• Project website
• Edward Adelson
• Russ Tedrake
• Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Related Topics

• Artificial intelligence
• Computer science and technology
• Mechanical engineering
• Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)
• Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (eecs)
• Aeronautical and astronautical engineering
• Brain and cognitive sciences
• National Science Foundation (NSF)

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