Comparison between Finsight and Fishcount

In this page, we briefly describe how our platform differs from Fishcount, which also provides estimates of farmed fish numbers here.

Firstly, we want to emphasise that we think Fishcount is excellent and an invaluable source of information.

General differences

Fishcount differs from our platform in these ways:

  • Fishcount calculates fish numbers for every country. We focus on Europe. This allows us to paint a more detailed picture about European aquaculture.
  • Fishcount only calculates the numbers of individuals (# of fish), not the amount of time spent by fish in aquaculture (# of fish-years). When setting priorities within the fish advocacy movement, both values should be considered.
  • Fishcount does not include mortality before slaughter. We do include mortality before slaughter, which allows us to account for fish who live and die in aquaculture and are therefore affected for welfare interventions.
  • We also add other pieces of useful information, such as special sections on trade and market price.

Comparison of body weights

When it comes to body weight at slaughter, Fishcount differs from our platform in a couple of ways:

  • Fishcount allows the estimated mean body weight for a particular species to vary across countries, while we use a constant body weight for each species.
  • Fishcount expressed estimated mean body weight as a range, while we express mean body weight as a single point estimate.

Fishcount gives the following estimated ranges for body weights at slaughter:

  • European seabass = 300 - 400 g; 300 - 450 g; or 300 - 500 g depending on country (our value for comparison = 400 g)
  • Gilt-head seabream = 300 - 400 g for all countries (our value for comparison = 350 g)
  • Atlantic salmon = 4,819 - 7,229 g (Norway) or 4,113 - 5,366 g (UK) (our value for comparison = 4600 g)
  • Rainbow trout = 210 - 583 g (Turkey); 1,000 - 2,000 g (France, Italy, Denmark); 3,000 - 5,000 g (Norway); and so on (our value for comparison = ~1,300 g)
  • Common carp = 1,000 - 2,500 g for most of central Europe; different values for other countries (our value for comparison = 1500 g)