Wild-caught wrasse used as cleaner fish in salmon cages face welfare challenges from capture stress, handling, and deployment into a foreign and challenging environment.
Wild-caught wrasse welfare concerns span the entire supply chain. Capture using seine nets causes crowding and handling stress with associated mortality during collection. Transport to salmon farms in tanks causes further stress. Deployment into salmon cages exposes wrasse to conditions significantly different from their shallow, warm coastal habitat — colder water, less light, and the presence of a very large predator species. Mortality rates among wild-caught wrasse in salmon cages are very high. The welfare case for transitioning away from wild wrasse capture toward captive-bred, welfare-monitored cleaner fish alternatives is strong, and several salmon producers have reduced wild wrasse use significantly.