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ESR offers research services for fisheries, aquaculture, marine conservation and animal welfare.

24/08/2026

In the early 2000s, research by biologist Lynne Sneddon revealed something striking.

Rainbow trout exposed to a painful stimulus began rubbing their mouths against their tanks, rocking from side to side and ignoring food. When given morphine, much of their usual behaviour returned.

It was research that helped challenge a long-held assumption: that fish cannot feel pain.

More than two decades later, the evidence around fish pain and sentience has continued to grow. But if we accept that fish can experience pain, another question follows: what should that mean for the way we produce seafood?

In a new article for Resilience, ESR’s Wasseem Emam and Shrilaxmi Patil explore what the science tells us and what it should mean for the future of aquaculture, fisheries and seafood.

As they conclude: “The first step is recognition. The next is responsibility.”

🔗 Read the full article: https://buff.ly/Sl3Ch4U

21/08/2026

What could the future of prawn welfare look like?

As Egypt's prawn farming sector continues to develop, there is an opportunity to explore how welfare-friendly practices could be incorporated early, rather than asking farmers to change long-established methods later.

That's part of the bigger ambition behind ESR's current research.

But for welfare improvements to become part of everyday practice, they also need to work for the people putting them into practice. That means understanding not only the potential welfare benefits, but how they affect quality, practicality and the realities of commercial farming.

As ESR's Country Manager for Egypt, Mohamed Bakr, explains:

“Ultimately, I hope this project demonstrates that more humane prawn harvesting and excellent product quality can go hand in hand.”

Our research is exploring whether ice slurry stunning can improve welfare without compromising product appearance or quality. If the evidence supports this, it could help build the case for practical welfare improvements that farmers can adopt as the sector develops.

If you'd like to help us continue this work, please consider supporting ESR with a donation.

🔗 https://buff.ly/waZ5q3T

20/08/2026

Kinda chic to be ESR 🐟✨

19/08/2026

For a welfare improvement to make a difference in practice, it also needs to work within the realities of commercial farming.

That's why ESR's prawn welfare research in Egypt is being conducted on commercial farms and alongside the farmers who understand these systems best.

As ESR’s Country Manager for Egypt, Mohamed Bakr, explains:

“Seeing the results firsthand also gives farmers more confidence to adopt the technique themselves.”

This approach means farmers can contribute directly to the research process, share their own experience and help us understand what implementation could realistically look like on the ground.

For us, that's an important part of translating research into practice: developing approaches that are not only grounded in science, but informed by local context and the people who may ultimately use them.

🔗 If you’d like to hear more of Mohamed’s insights from this project, join our mailing list: https://buff.ly/yZ6bcUq

18/08/2026

For fish, rising water temperatures aren't simply a change in their surroundings.

They can fundamentally alter the conditions their bodies need to survive.

As water warms, fish require more oxygen to support an increasing metabolism. Yet warmer water holds less oxygen, meaning demand rises at the same time as supply falls. Prolonged heat can also contribute to physiological stress, disease risk and, when temperatures exceed what fish can tolerate, mortality.

For farmed fish, there is an additional challenge: unlike some wild fish, they may have little or no opportunity to move to cooler water when conditions become dangerous.

In a new article for Foodfacts.org, ESR's Head of Research, Wasseem Emam, explores what the growing frequency and intensity of heatwaves could mean for fish welfare, and why the consequences beneath the water's surface deserve greater attention.

🔗 Read the full article: https://buff.ly/AcrLjjH

17/08/2026

For ESR's team in Egypt, a day in the field starts long before the trials begin.

There are farmers to coordinate with, equipment to prepare, ice and transport to arrange, and research protocols to put into practice under the realities of a working commercial farm.

Once the trials are underway, the team moves from preparation to observation and data collection: monitoring behavioural welfare indicators, taking measurements and comparing the ice slurry treatment with conventional practices.

And throughout it all, they're working alongside farmers, discussing what they're seeing and considering how the approach could work within real commercial farming conditions.

As ESR’s Country Manager for Egypt, Mohamed Bakr, explains:

“Working alongside farmers is essential because they understand the realities of aquaculture. Welfare improvements are only successful if they are practical, affordable and fit into existing farming systems. By involving farmers from the beginning, we can develop solutions that improve animal welfare while supporting productivity and ensuring they are more likely to be adopted.”

Swipe ➡️ for a glimpse behind the scenes of a typical day in the field.

🔗 Want to hear more about this project? Join our mailing list for more insights: https://buff.ly/yZ6bcUq

14/08/2026

"The biggest surprise for me came during our pilot trial."

Before beginning the main field trials, ESR's field team in Egypt recently carried out a pilot study at a commercial prawn farm in Kafr El-Sheikh. While pilot studies are often unseen, they're a vital part of ensuring research is both robust and practical.

For ESR's Country Manager for Egypt, Mohamed Bakr, this particular pilot also brought an unexpected but encouraging finding:

"Based on my previous experiences using ice slurry stunning with tilapia, I expected prawns to take considerably longer to reach complete stillness. However, in the pilot trial, the prawns consistently reached complete stillness within about 1.5 to 2 minutes. It was a very encouraging result and gave us great confidence before moving into the full commercial trials.”

Alongside helping us refine the study protocol, calibrate research equipment and identify practical challenges, the pilot gave the team confidence that the methodology was working as intended before progressing to the main study.

It's another step forward in our work to develop practical, evidence-based approaches to improving prawn welfare alongside commercial farmers.

🔗 Join our mailing list to hear more from Mohamed in the coming weeks: https://buff.ly/EaUDMap

13/08/2026

Known for their remarkable regenerative abilities and unusual biology, sea cucumbers have fascinated marine scientists for decades.

Now, a new study by Sara Jobson and colleagues suggests they may have another extraordinary story to tell.

Researchers found that tissue explants from the sea cucumber (Psolus fabricii) survived, healed and continued to grow for more than three years in natural seawater, without nutrient supplementation. The authors describe this as a form of "natural tissue immortality", challenging long-held assumptions about how long complex animal tissues can survive outside the body.

The findings don't mean sea cucumbers themselves are immortal, and many questions remain about the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon. They do, however, suggest these tissues could provide a valuable new model for studying regeneration, tissue engineering and biomedical science.

It's another reminder that some of the most remarkable scientific discoveries come from the species we often overlook.

And it’s the ones that seem the most unusual that have the most fascinating stories to tell.

🔗 Read the full paper: https://buff.ly/3o94N2p

Source: Jobson et al. (2026). Natural tissue immortality: Indefinite survival of sea cucumber explants. Science Advances 12, eaeb1394.

12/08/2026

Improving animal welfare starts with understanding how to measure it.

Before practical welfare improvements can be developed, researchers first need to collect and evaluate the evidence that helps them understand how animals respond under different conditions.

As ESR's Country Manager for Egypt, Mohamed Bakr, explains:

"One of the main welfare concerns during conventional prawn harvesting is prolonged asphyxiation, which can last for up to an hour before death occurs."

That's why, as part of our prawn welfare research in Egypt, we're evaluating ice slurry stunning and using behavioural indicators to better understand how prawns respond. By monitoring behaviours such as the movement of pleopods (swimmerets), pereiopods (walking legs) or gills, as well as the presence or absence of righting and tail reflexes, we can build an objective picture that helps inform practical, science-based welfare improvements.

As Mohamed explains:

"These indicators allow us to evaluate the stunning process objectively and support the development of practical, science-based harvesting practices."

It's one example of how we're working alongside commercial farmers to ensure welfare research is grounded in real farming systems and generates evidence that can support meaningful change.

🔗 Join our mailing list to hear more from Mohamed in the coming weeks: https://buff.ly/EaUDMap

11/08/2026

Admittedly, it’s actually one of many ESR blues. 👀

Drop your guess in the comments. 👇

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