Study highlights ‘troubling’ absence of animal welfare knowledge in aquaculture With traditional fishing methods in decline, aquaculture – the industrial farming of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic species – is on the rise, but with little knowledge of the impact it’s had on animal welfare, says a team of researchers at New York University's Department of Environmental Studies. Touted as both a solution to food insecurity and the global issue of overfishing, aquaculture is the fastest growing farmed food sector, according to the FAO’s FAO reported that global fish consumption increased at an annual rate of 3.1% between 1961 and 2017, twice that of the annual world population growth for the same period, and higher than other animal protein foods (meat, dairy, milk, etc.) consumption of which increased by 2.1% over the same period.