Alaska pollock is the world's most harvested fish, taken by trawl fisheries in the North Pacific, with welfare considerations around capture methods, on-board handling, and live processing.
Alaska pollock captured by trawl experience significant welfare harms during the capture process. Trawling causes progressive exhaustion, injury from conspecific crowding in the net, and barotrauma as fish are rapidly hauled from depth. Depressurization causes the swim bladder to expand, which is painful and incapacitating. Fish may be held alive in the net for extended periods before being brought on board. On factory vessels, processing typically involves no pre-slaughter stunning, meaning fish are slaughtered by methods including asphyxiation and live cutting that cause pain and distress. The scale of this fishery means that welfare improvements would have enormous aggregate impact.