A Digital Approach to Fish Morphometry: Advancing Animal Welfare and Biodiversity Conservation

Fish welfare, particularly in aquaculture and natural habitats, is a crucial consideration for minimizing stress and enhancing animal care. Traditional fish morphometry methods, which require fish handling and air exposure, can lead to stress and physiological disturbances. This study introduces a digital morphometry method that aims to reduce handling time and improve precision while maintaining fish welfare. By using a digital image-based approach, distances between specific landmarks on fish bodies were measured, reducing the need for prolonged air exposure. A comparison of air exposure times between traditional and digital methods was conducted using a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test, revealing statistically significant differences (P < 0.0001), with the digital method showing reduced exposure time. The digital approach offers several advantages, including greater accuracy, non-invasiveness, and cost-effectiveness, and can be easily applied across a variety of fields, such as fisheries management, wildlife biology, and veterinary medicine. Despite certain limitations, such as the inability to measure larger body dimensions and potential image distortion due to camera positioning, this method holds promise for enhancing fish welfare and advancing biodiversity conservation. Moreover, its versatility opens opportunities for use in other multidisciplinary research areas, making it a valuable tool for both ecological studies and applied sciences.