Oyster toadfish are common bycatch in East Coast US fisheries and widely used in biomedical research, raising welfare considerations around capture stress, air exposure, and laboratory conditions.
Oyster toadfish used in biomedical research face welfare challenges from repeated handling, confinement in laboratory aquaria, and experimental procedures including surgical preparation for vestibular research. As socially complex fish with established territorial behaviors, laboratory housing that prevents these behaviors may cause stress. Bycatch capture in traps involves extended confinement before discovery, causing physiological stress from elevated CO2 in poorly ventilated traps. The use of toadfish as research models requires ongoing welfare assessment to ensure experimental designs minimize suffering.