The Lumpfish Welfare Watcher is a web & desktop interface designed to help fish farmers assess and improve the welfare of Lumpfish based on the validated operational welfare score index known as the Lumpfish Operational Welfare Score Index or LOWSI.

 

Link to the LUMPFISH WELFARE WATCHER TOOL

 

The home screen has three tools available:

◼ Lumpfish Welfare e-learning
◼ BMI Calculator
◼ Rapid Welfare Assessment Tool

 

LUMPFISH WELFARE E-LEARNING

Clicking on the Lumpfish Welfare E-learning tool will open the free course in Lumpfish welfare.

This short online course provides essential information for both professionals and students on Lumpfish
welfare. It also shows how to score the lumpish visual indicators which is essential to use the Rapid
Welfare Assessment Tool.

 

BMI CALCULATOR

The purpose of the Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator is to calculate the BMI of a given sample of Lumpfish
based on wet weight (measured in grams) and total length (measured in millimetres).

The tool calculates the proportion of fish that are emaciated, underweight, normal-weight or above normal weight, and estimates the body height, the fineness ratio and the maximum mesh size that is required to prevent lumpfish from escaping. This calculator also provides summary statistics and recommendations for action based on the BMI outcome for the sampled population.

 

RAPID WELFARE ASSESSMENT TOOL:

The purpose of the Rapid Welfare Assessment Tool is to calculate the Lumpfish Operational Welfare Score
Index (LOWSI) based on the BMI data (as stated above) and four additional welfare metrics:

1. Body damage score
2. Tail or Caudal fin damage score
3. Eye condition score
4. Sucker deformity score

This tool determines the proportion of fish that have good welfare, moderately compromised welfare and
severely compromised welfare. The RWAT provides the same summary statistics as the BMI calculator in
addition to all individual scores and overall LOWSI. The information is displayed with summary statistics
and recommendations for action.

 

Check the Web interface user manual for more information about the use of the tool.

 

Developed by CSAR – Swansea University