Mahi-mahi dolphinfish aquaculture is being developed as an alternative to wild capture. Their active schooling biology creates welfare challenges similar to other fast-swimming species.
Mahi-mahi aquaculture welfare faces the fundamental challenge of their highly active open-ocean biology. Like other fast-swimming pelagic species, confinement in cages limits the expression of natural swimming behaviour and causes confinement-related stress. Their rapid growth provides a welfare argument for short production cycles relative to slower-growing species. Establishing welfare standards during the early development of this aquaculture species creates the opportunity to avoid entrenchment of welfare-compromising practices before scale-up.