Description of subprojects and results, including major changes from the original proposal
Key Achievements:
Increased Adoption of Stunning Equipment:
Kılıç: Türkiye’s largest fish producer, Kılıç, has significantly expanded its use of electrical stunning equipment according to private reports. Additionally, Kılıç published its first sustainability report detailing fish welfare policies, including enforcing a maximum stocking density of 10 kg/m³ and confirmation of electrical stunning practices.
Other Producers: According to the information we received from producers and electric stunning machine manufacturers, there has been an increase in the number of fish stunned following the rise in machine purchases following our fish welfare report launch.
Secured Welfare Commitments:
Producers: Luckyfish and İlknak have signed our fish welfare commitment, with İlknak publishing the commitment on their website. These companies were already using electrical stunning for 100% of their production; securing these commitments helps establish our asks as norms and demonstrates the feasibility of our standards.
Hospitality Sector: Divan (35 restaurants, 17 hotels) and NG Hotels (5 hotels) have signed and published our fish welfare commitment, collectively impacting an estimated 400,000 fish per year.
Educational Initiatives:
We organized a fish welfare training program for promising 3rd and 4th-year aquaculture students. Out of 62 applicants, 25 students were selected. Representatives from major producers, including Abalıoğlu, Kılıç, Nordzee, and Sürsan, participated as speakers.
Outcomes:
Students demonstrated a significant improvement in fish welfare knowledge, with a standardized mean difference increase of 1.64 in their fish welfare knowledge test performance post-training.
The post-event survey indicated a high willingness to participate in future events, with an average score of 9.56/10.
Two weeks after the event, 24% of participants contacted large retailers to inquire about their fish welfare policies, indicating increased engagement and advocacy.
We plan to track the employment trajectories of these students within the industry to assess the long-term impact of our training initiatives.
Progress Against Goals:
Number of Fish Affected: 400.000 fishes per year are currently covered by new and counterfactual commitments we secured from hotel chains. The number of fishes covered by the commitments of producers already following our standards is higher than 10 million per year. We also estimate through private reports that, around 40 million fishes' suffering during slaughter was reduced by the increased use of stunning equipment in 2024.
Spending breakdown
All the funds were spent on the salary of the program manager.