Welfare Wins from Around the World

Greetings from Shrimp Welfare Project!

Pack your bags and grab your passport – we’re going on a trip around the world in this month’s newsletter, celebrating major milestones for shrimp welfare across the global industry. 

We start in the UK, where supermarket chain Morrisons announced it’s transitioning its shrimp supply chain to 100% electrically stunned and eyestalk ablation-free by 2027, a move that could improve the lives of billions of shrimps.

And, half-way around the globe, India’s Apex Frozen Foods and Indonesia’s Mega Marine Pride have joined our Humane Slaughter Initiative and will be granted electrical stunners to help shrimps experience less pain and distress during harvest. 

A quick note: In the April newsletter, we announced the launch of our online merch store. It’s come to our attention that the third-party vendor, Spring, is taking several weeks or months to fulfill orders. We share our supporters’ frustrations with these delays, and are actively looking for a new vendor to run our merch store. As always, thanks for your continued support of Shrimp Welfare Project!

See you next month!

Robin | Communications Lead

The UK grocer Morrisons joins other forward-thinking companies in bringing shrimp welfare into the mainstream by pledging to electrically stun every shrimp in its supply chain by 2027. As part of the same policy, they will also go 100% eyestalk ablation-free for mother shrimps. 

Morrisons is the 8th major retailer to commit to humane slaughter and ending eyestalk ablation! Shrimp Welfare Project is proud to be a part of this impressive shift in the industry.

As momentum grows, we’ve put together a new blog post about the growing list of European supermarkets where you can buy higher-welfare shrimps and how consumers worldwide can help make an impact.

🛫 First stop is Andhra Pradesh, where Apex Frozen Foods became the second major Indian producer to join our Humane Slaughter Initiative! Shrimp Welfare Project is granting them an electrical stunner that will reduce suffering for roughly 1,800 metric tonnes of shrimps every single year. Their European buyer, Fisherman’s Choice, has pledged to prioritise electrically stunned shrimps, once again proving that higher welfare and supply chain management can go hand-in-hand.

🛬 Next stop is East Java, where leading producer Mega Marine Pride has also joined our Humane Slaughter Initiative! This is our very first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Indonesia, which is the world’s fourth-largest exporter of shrimps. Netherlands-based supplier Seafood Connection also joined the agreement by committing to prioritise the stunned shrimps. This is our third MoU with Seafood Connection, who has been one of the most supportive partners of the Humane Slaughter Initiative.

These are the 18th and 19th MoUs in our Humane Slaughter Initiative, and we are happy to share that our landmark 20th MoU is currently being finalized! 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from our Humane Slaughter Initiative.

In the past month, we attended: 

• AI, Animals, & Digital Minds 2025 in London, United Kingdom (May 30 → June 1)

• EA Global in London, United Kingdom (June 6 → June 8)

“It’s always a pleasure to attend EAG events and connect with people who are motivated to do good in the world, but this year’s EAG London was particularly exciting from the very start: Zach Robinson, CEO of the Centre for Effective Altruism, featured Shrimp Welfare Project’s segment on The Daily Show during the opening remarks. I’m so happy to see our work being used as an example of how people can raise awareness, put compassion into action, and use effective interventions to reduce suffering in the world – without taking ourselves too seriously, of course!”

— Aaron Boddy, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Shrimp Welfare Project

• Crustacean Compassion Day, Virtual (June 10)

  • Communications Lead Robin Goist presented about Shrimp Welfare Project’s programmes and initiatives during Part 2 of the event.

• TCRS Shrimp Summit in Bali, Indonesia (June 22 → June 25)

In the next few months, we look forward to attending:

• Global Shrimp Forum in Utrecht, Netherlands (September 2 → September 4)

  • Chief Programmes Officer Krzysztof Wojtas is speaking on a panel about shrimp welfare alongside other industry leaders from Ace Aquatec, Optimar, Bankiva, and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). 

• CARE 2025 in Warsaw, Poland (September 11 → September 14)

This month’s media highlights:

• Thanks to our collaboration with illustrator Just Comics, aka Joan Chan, eyestalk ablation is going viral on Instagram ➜ Check out why

• Bentham’s Bulldog recaps EAG London and snaps a picture with our co-founders, Aaron Boddy and Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla ➜ Read about the moment

“They [Aaron and Andrés) are, by highly conservative estimates, two of the ten coolest people on Earth. So it was awesome that I got to meet two people who co-founded an organization that has prevented billions of shrimp from experiencing extreme suffering—thousands for every dollar they’ve raised. Their organization is responsible for helping a number of animals roughly on the order of the number of people in the world.”
— Bentham’s Bulldog

• Blogger Mind Meandering breaks down why donating to shrimp welfare beats a latte (and he’s matching the first £100). ➜ Dive into his analysis

  • The piece was inspired by the “International Shrimp Welfare Day” fundraiser that Glenn/United States of Exception is running on Substack later this year in coordination with FarmKind. ➜ See how you can get involved

If you want to learn more about shrimp welfare and the shrimp farming industry:

• The Global Shrimp Forum’s Willem van der Pijl says shrimp welfare is becoming an increasingly important issue for the industry, as more and more retailers are commiting to electrical stunning and prohibiting eyestalk ablation. ➜ Read more in AquaFeed

• Shrimp Welfare Project (yes, us!) added two previously conducted studies to our Research page, examining Welfare and Profitability and Supply and Demand Impacts. ➜ Check out our Research projects

• Scotland’s Animal Welfare Commission reviews the science of fish sentience and what it means for aquaculture rules. ➜Skim the report

Job opportunities in aquatic animals:

• Water Quality Remote Sensing Lead - Fish Welfare Initiative