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Paul,
I lifted this information from the American Fisheries Society Web Site
(http://www.fisheries.org) under policy statements. You may want to review
the "Guidelines for Use of Fishes in Field Research" for relevance to your
situation.
Tracy Lawrence
AFS Concerns for Animal Welfare
Concerns regarding the welfare and use of animals in medical laboratory
research have resulted in laws, government policies, procedures, and
protocols that require humane treatment of animals for all uses. Research
projects, particularly those conducted in laboratories, are reviewed to
ensure that projects using animals are necessary and conducted as humanely
as possible. Examples of animal welfare protection laws, policies, and
institutions include the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq.), Guide
for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the National Institutes of
Health (1985), and federally mandated "institutional animal care and use
committees" (IACUC), which are in place at federally funded institutions to
ensure that humane care is given to research animals.
To build on and extend these ethical guidelines to the field, thus
promoting the conduct of all fisheries work in a humane manner that
eliminates cruelty and minimizes suffering, the AFS-in cooperation with the
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the American
Institute of Fishery Research Biologists-developed and subsequently
published "Guidelines for Use of Fishes in Field Research" (Nickum 1988).
This document responded to the 1985 amendment to the Animal Welfare Act
that extended principles of humane laboratory animal care to field research
activities. The AFS encourages its members to uphold public standards of
humane treatment, both in the field and the laboratory.
Nickum, J. G. 1988. Guidelines for use of fishes in field research.
Fisheries 13(2):16-23.
On Monday, March 06, 2000 11:59 PM, Paul Humphries
[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> We have been sampling fish larvae for about five years and we have now
come to
> the attention of Animal Ethics bureaucrats who are concerned about how we
are
> killing our fish larvae. We cannot use formalin in our research centre
for
> health reasons and, since we need to look at otoliths of some of the
larvae, we
> usually throw larvae <10 mm in lenghth straight into 95% ethanol. My
experience
> is that the larvae die within a second or so and surely this must be
as'humane'
> as any method. Juveniles and adults are anaesthetised first before being
put
> into alcohol. The bureaucrats have queried the use of ethanol and put me
under
> pressure to justify this method. Can anyone out there point me to
'official'
> guidelines for the 'humane' killing of fish larvae?
>
> Yours in hope and frustration, Paul.
>
> Dr Paul Humphries
> Research Fellow, Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology,
Department
> of Biological Sciences,
> Monash University, C/- Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre,
> PO Box 921 Albury, NSW, 2640, AUSTRALIA
> Tel: Int 61 02 60582317
> Fax: int 61 02 60431626
>
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
> http://freshwater.canberra.edu.au/
>
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