Three ACEs Up Our Sleeve

Greetings from Shrimp Welfare Project!

We’ve got a triple-feature of exciting updates to share this month: highlights from our annual Shrimposium, a groundbreaking innovation in humane slaughter, and two new shrimp welfare commitments. But, first things first…

🏆 Alongside fellow impact-oriented organisations, we’re extremely proud to be named an Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) Recommended Charity for the third consecutive year! 

Being ACE Recommended is a reflection of our cost-effective, evidence-driven work to improve shrimp welfare globally. Your support helps us turn research and data into industry partnerships and real-world change for billions of animals. Thank you! 🦐

🔬 Calling all shrimp researchers! 👩‍🔬 The Arthropoda Foundation is currently accepting expressions of interest for new research that can improve welfare standards and support practical, science-backed solutions for shrimp farming. Stick around until the end of the newsletter for details about this awesome funding opportunity!

See you next month!

Robin | Communications Lead

🇬🇷 We’re back from our annual weeklong team retreat (affectionately called Shrimposium) held in Athens, Greece! 

Our global team usually works fully remote, and we’re always amazed by how powerful it is to be in the same room together. Unfortunately, our two team members in India were unable to attend in-person, but they participated throughout the week via video calls. It was energizing to collaborate, brainstorm, and strategize in real-time.

⭐ Highlights from this year’s Shrimposium:

• Thanks to the success of our Humane Slaughter Initiative and growing momentum in the industry, we feel that we have the ability to drastically ramp up our programming with cutting-edge interventions and innovative exploratory projects to help shape the future of humane shrimp farming.

• We’re expanding our Humane Slaughter Initiative: We initially set out to give away 24 electrical stunners by the end of 2025, and we’re excited to announce that we’ve achieved and surpassed that goal and we’re going to continue to go above and beyond with deploying the latest humane slaughter technology to shrimp producers across the globe

• We’re also prioritizing research into best practices for humane slaughter, so we can fill the welfare gap in the scientific literature and further improve the welfare of shrimps during harvest. Along with our industry partners, we are beginning exciting new projects into the research and development of new humane slaughter technology for specific farm contexts and geographies.

This might sound like we’re just continuing business-as-usual, but it’s actually a moment of historic levels of absorbency. We have ambitious, shovel-ready plans that could result in new shrimp welfare solutions implemented across entire regions, potentially increasing our (Shr)Impact from the current ~4.5 billion per year to more than 100 billion shrimps per year, as soon as 2030.

➡️ We’re not just talking about doubling our impact; we’re talking about 20x-ing it in sustainable, cost-effective ways.

🦐 With your help, we are raising the bar and transitioning the shrimp industry for a more sustainable and ethical future.

We’re thrilled to join UK retailers, researchers, and industry partners in celebrating the world’s first prototype of an onboard stunning and tailing machine for wild-caught nephrops (also known as scampi or langoustines).

Shrimp Welfare Project is part of a broad coalition supporting the project, led by Fisheries Innovation & Sustainability (FIS), alongside partners like Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Whitby Foods, Young’s Seafood, Optimar, and the University of Stirling.

🦞 The prototype was designed for electrical stunning at sea to render nephrops unconscious before tailing, ultimately improving animal welfare and worker safety while helping the industry align with the UK’s recognition of decapod sentience under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act.

The machine has already been successfully trialled onboard a nephrops trawler, and was recently named a Finalist for Global Seafood Alliance’s 2025 Responsible Seafood Innovation Awards. 

🤝 This collaboration marks a historic research breakthrough and industry innovation. Together, we can work towards a more ethical and sustainable seafood industry.

Two more European supermarket chains just leveled up on shrimp welfare by committing to humane slaughter and ending eyestalk ablation in their supply chains: 

🇳🇱 Jumbo published its policy on stunning and shrimp welfare standards. Jumbo is the second-largest retailer in the Netherlands behind Albert Heijn, who published their shrimp welfare Policy in 2024.

🇫🇷 Les Mousquetaires became the first French retailer to do so, marking a meaningful milestone for the French market.

In total, 11 major retailers across Europe have committed to higher-welfare standards for shrimps!

🌊 Dive into our Corporate Engagement programmes to see how we’re helping corporates turn animal welfare standards into practical solutions.

In the past month, we attended:

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

• Asia Farm Animal Day, virtual (October 10)

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

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

• EA Connect, virtual (December 5 → December 7)

This month’s media highlights:

• New book release: Shrimp and Prawn Welfare in the Wild-Caught Fishing Industry by Shrimp Welfare Project’s Research & Policy Lead Shannon Davis, Ren Ryba, Peter Singer, and Tse Yip Fai (Advisor at Shrimp Welfare Project) offers a review of global research and offers recommendations for best practices. ➜ Order your copy

• Grab your headphones: Vox recently turned Dylan Matthews’ recent piece about Shrimp Welfare Project into an episode of the Unexplainable podcast! ➜ Listen here • Read the original article

• Industry signal from Bali: The TCRS Shrimp Summit shared research findings from academics at the University of Stirling exploring approaches to humane slaughter. ➜ Read the Shrimp Summit newsletter

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

• “Race to the Top:” Ecuador’s Sustainable Shrimp Partnership (SSP) and the National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA) organised the second edition of a shrimp industry sustainability forum held on October 21 during AquaExpo International in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The event highlighted sustainability as a measure of high performance and transformative leadership.  ➜ Read more from The Fish Site

• New Study: A report published in Responsible Seafood Advocate compares recirculating, biofloc, and synbiotic systems for Pacific white shrimps in low salinity and high-density conditions by measuring survival, yield, and feed conversion. ➜ Check it out

• Documentary spotlight: In the new short film Seantience, Daniela Waldhorn (Director at Rethink Priorities and Advisor at Shrimp Welfare Project) joins Eva Read, Jonathan Birch, Mart R. Gross, and Oscar Horta to discuss welfare considerations for aquatic animals. ➜ Watch on YouTube

Research opportunity in aquatic animal welfare:

• Research Proposals - Arthropoda Foundation - EOIs due January 15 

• In this funding cycle, the focus is on Pacific white shrimp and giant tiger prawn in commercial aquaculture. 

• Projects may explore:

  • Humane harvesting protocols and best practices

  • Comparing stunned vs. non-stunned shrimp for welfare and product quality

  • Evaluating bioluminescence as a stress indicator

  • Substrate preference tests

  • Feasible forms of environmental enrichment

• The goal is to generate research that can improve welfare standards and support practical, science-backed solutions for shrimp farming.

• Grants up to $10K (or $50K for exceptional projects)

• Open to university researchers globally