Dungeness crab is a commercially important species on the Pacific coast of the USA with growing attention to welfare during capture, holding, and processing.
Research increasingly supports the view that crabs like Dungeness crab have functional nociceptive systems and exhibit avoidance learning, suggesting capacity for pain-like experiences. Holding conditions in tanks, particularly overcrowding and poor water quality, may cause chronic stress. Boiling alive is a common killing method that, on current evidence, may cause prolonged suffering. More humane alternatives including electrical stunning before killing are technically feasible and increasingly used in progressive processing operations. The welfare of commercially fished crustaceans deserves serious consideration given the scale of harvest and emerging evidence of their sentience.