Sprats are caught in vast numbers as forage fish for aquafeed production, with welfare during capture and processing largely unaddressed despite their scale of use.
The welfare of sprats and other forage fish in industrial capture fisheries represents one of the largest unaddressed welfare problems in the food system — billions of individuals experience severe crowding, suffocation and painful death to produce feed for farmed fish. Their small size and economic role make individual welfare consideration impractical with current methods, but research into rapid slaughter methods and reduced capture stress could improve outcomes at scale.