Wasseem Emam is the Founder and Executive Director of Ethical Seafood Research (ESR), a UK-based nonprofit advancing animal welfare in aquatic food systems across the Global South. He is an author and doctoral researcher in veterinary sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, focusing on improving animal welfare in semi-intensive aquaculture systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Wasseem serves on the technical review panel of the Wild Animal Initiative and as the Equity & Inclusion Officer for the Animal Welfare Research Network and the British Ecological Society.
Researchers are finding evidence that fish feel pain. What does that mean for the ethics of seafood?
Fish are often treated as reflex-bound creatures, bodies without minds. Yet, study by study, from anatomy labs to behavioural experiments, mounting evidence to the contrary has emerged.
August 20, 2026
