Celebrating 4 Years and Helping 4 Billion Shrimps — Thanks to You!

Greetings from Shrimp Welfare Project!

🎉 Cue birthday horns and confetti cannons 🥳

This month, we’re celebrating our 4th birthday in style, by announcing our 20th and 21st corporate partnerships in the Humane Slaughter Initiative.

Once all 21 electrical stunners are delivered and operational, we will be helping a total of 4 billion shrimps annually! 

 🎁 4 billion shrimps on our 4th birthday – could we ask for a better gift?!

From our humble beginnings in September 2021, we’ve grown into a global movement that’s providing real-world solutions to support the shrimp farming industry transition to higher-welfare practices.

This progress wouldn’t be possible without you – yes, you! Whether you’re a longtime donor, a new supporter, or one of our industry partners, thank you for being a part of this journey. We’re excited to see what we can accomplish together in the years to come.

🍰 So, grab a slice of virtual cake and join us as we dive into this special birthday edition of the newsletter. 

See you next month!

Robin | Communications Lead

We’ve signed 2 new MOUs (memorandums of understanding) in our Humane Slaughter Initiative, which provides electrical stunners to aquaculture operations free-of-charge to render animals unconscious during harvest.

🇮🇳 The 20th MOU is with leading Indian shrimp producer Sandhya Aqua, marking our 3rd MOU in India.

🇻🇳 The 21st MOU is a collaboration with major Vietnamese producer CAMIMEX and Seafood Connection, a Netherlands-based supplier who has been one of our most supportive partners, previously signing 3 other MOUs. This will be our 8th stunner in Vietnam.

Major Milestone: When all 21 stunners are up and running, the Humane Slaughter Initiative will be improving the lives of about 4 billion shrimps annually (in expectation).

“‘In expectation?’ What does that mean?” you might be asking. Great question! 

📈 Since the industry measures shrimps by weight, rather than counting them as individuals, these impact numbers are estimated based on total tonnage. You can read more about the calculations on the (Shr)Impact page on our website.

4 Years of Progress: When our co-founders, Aaron Boddy and Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, started Shrimp Welfare Project 4 years ago, the idea of shrimp welfare was barely on the radar. Now, it’s part of industry and public conversations worldwide. 

📰 The latest coverage in a major news outlet comes from Vox, who published a feature story this month about the growing momentum around improving welfare standards in shrimp farming. 

Andrés was interviewed by reporter Dylan Matthews, who wrote about how Shrimp Welfare Project is providing practical solutions to support shrimp producers, suppliers, and retailers. 

It’s a long-form article (⏱️~20 minute read), but it’s well worth the time. Dylan’s thoughtful storytelling prompts readers to consider important questions about ethics and impact. He also examines the public’s reaction to shrimp welfare, including the overwhelming positive response to Andrés’ appearance on The Daily Show earlier this year. 

The piece is filled with so many good quotes, it was hard to choose just one to include here. I truly encourage you to set aside some time to read it for yourself. 

But, for now, I’ll leave you with what Andrés recently wrote on LinkedIn:

“There’s still much to do, but the momentum is undeniable. I’m proud of how far the field has come in such a short time, and I’m excited for what the future has in store.”

In the past month, we attended:

• Making Progress for Shrimp Welfare, virtual (August 26)

  • Chief Programmes Officer Krzysztof Wojtas joined Rethink Priorities’ panel to map the state of shrimp welfare, which covered everything from electrical stunning to research gaps and funding bottlenecks. 

  • Check out Rethink Priorities' blogs about the webinar on their Substack.

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

  • Chief Programmes Officer Krzysztof Wojtas spoke 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)

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

• Faunalytics’ Fauna Connections, virtual (September 18)

• AVA Summit Asia, Delhi, India (October 3 → October 5)

• Asia Farm Animal Day, virtual (October 10)

• EAG New York City, New York (October 10 → October 12)

➡️ But wait, there’s more: We’re also preparing for Shrimp Welfare Project’s annual in-person team retreat (affectionately called Shrimposium) which will take place October 20 to 24. 

Stay tuned for updates from Shrimposium in our next newsletter!

This month’s media highlights:

• Curious about crustacean minds? Alex O’Connor’s Within Reason hosts Peter Godfrey-Smith for a tour of nonhuman consciousness. Jump to 1:16:51 for the discussion of “Should We Make Shrimp Farming an Ethical Priority?” ➜ Watch on YouTube

• One podcast, millions for animals: Dwarkesh Patel’s interview with Lewis Bollard sparked a viral FarmKind fundraiser (with a fundraising match included) ➜ Donate via FarmKind • Watch the episode

• Current Affairs’ new Animals Issue features a Q&A with Andrés, our co-founder and board chair, giving his “quick pitch” for why people should care about shrimp welfare. ➜ Read the magazine (Q&A on page 20)

• Doing Good: The Centre for Effective Altruism’s new media series highlights Andrés, who left a career in finance to become a shrimp welfare advocate. ➜ Learn more about Andrés’ impact

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

• Policy Shift: Global Seafood Alliance will require all BAP-certified shrimp producers to end eyestalk ablation by 2030 ➜ Read the announcement

• New Research: The University of Stirling wins a £2.7M Open Philanthropy grant to advance fish and shrimp welfare across Asia, led by Dave Little and Simão Zacarias ➜ Coverage in Seafood Source

• Precision Welfare: Thailand’s HydroNeo is teaming up with welfare specialists to give shrimp farmers smart tools for monitoring and better outcomes ➜ Check out the collaboration

Job opportunities in aquatic animal welfare and effective advocacy:

• Program Manager (Andhra Pradesh, India) - Fish Welfare Initiative - applications close October 7

• Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program - Ambitious Impact - applications are open until October 5

  • This program is where Shrimp Welfare Project was founded 4 years ago!