Dossier:
D (2018-08-02)
WelfareCheck:
F (2022-10-05)
Advice:
F (2018-08-02)
Profile status
Taxonomy
Growth
Reproduction
Handling
Farming remarks
Dicentrarchus labrax, a moronid from the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, is a valuable species for aquaculture, dominating the Mediterranean marine finish culture together with Sparus aurata. Many aspects of its biology, however, are not taken into consideration in farming conditions, especially in intensive culture which represents the most frequent farming system using sea cages. Raceways, tanks, and ponds are also used, but to a lesser degree. Despite recent advances in nutrition, there is still dependence on unsustainable feed sources such as fish meal and oil. Many behavioural aspects are yet to be fully understood, namely on reproduction, where courtship processes are unknown and spawning has largely to be artificially induced. Spatial needs are also an issue, since farming conditions are generally too restrictive of natural movement. This species is known to be highly sensitive to stressors at all life stages, although good practices can greatly reduce stress effects. A proper culture system, providing shelter and substrate, reducing densities based on natural numbers and increasing space are measures that should contribute to better farming practices.
For details see: WelfareCheck | farm (latest major release: 2022-10-05)
For recommendations see: Advice | farm (latest major release: 2018-08-02)
Related news
2023-08-09: AAC report and update of Salmo salar
In 2022, our colleagues from FishEthoGroup were invited to write a report for the Aquaculture Advisory Council of the European Commission on the topic of "Using ethology to improve farmed fish welfare and production". This report was recently published anew with an updated appendix. For this report, FishEthoGroup collaborated with the fair-fish database to give a summary of the situation of 5 of the most frequently farmed species in Europe (Sparus aurata, Dicentrarchus labrax, Oncorhynchus mykiss, Salmo salar, Cyprinus carpio). We from the fair-fish database used the opportunity to update these 5 profiles (of which you have read in this News section in the past months). Among them was that of Salmo salar, the Atlantic salmon, which was enriched with a plethora of papers and was transferred to our latest more transparent and user-friendly formatting scheme. Thanks to the update, we could get rid of a couple of question marks in the welfare assessment, but the new findings only manifested what was hinted at before: except at slaughter, Salmo salar cannot experience good welfare in captivity even under the best possible conditions.
2022-11-02: Update: Dicentrarchus labrax
It has been 5 years since the first publication of the Short profile for European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax). We updated the content using a selection of papers that came out since 2017. Also, you will notice a change in formatting. The FishEthoBase has undergone several formatting changes and was launched in a new design in the summer of 2022. Now, we additionally implemented a consistent age class and label structure throughout the profile with Dicentrarchus labrax as the premiere species. Please find the fully updated Species profile (in content and formatting) of Dicentrarchus labrax now in the FishEthoBase – our first profile with the version number 3.0.
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