Atlantic cod aquaculture has attempted to reduce pressure on wild stocks, but welfare challenges including crowding stress, disease, and seasonal spawning behaviour frustration have limited commercial success.
Atlantic cod welfare in aquaculture highlights the challenges of farming migratory, schooling fish species. Cod show strong spawning migration drives that cannot be expressed in sea cages, causing welfare-relevant frustration behaviours. In cages, seasonal aggregation behaviour during spawning periods increases social stress and disease transmission. Amoebic gill disease causes respiratory compromise and significant welfare harm. The commercial failure of Atlantic cod aquaculture reflects partly the welfare challenges of farming a species whose biology is fundamentally mismatched with sea cage confinement. Wild cod welfare through sustainable fisheries management may better serve both welfare and conservation goals.