Yellowtail amberjack farming is expanding in Mediterranean Europe, with key welfare challenges around aggression, crowding, and anaesthetic handling practices.
Yellowtail amberjack are active, schooling predators that suffer significant welfare compromise in intensive cage conditions. Intraspecific aggression causes bite wounds, fin damage, and eye injuries that create pain and secondary infection risk. Poor water quality during crowding operations triggers escape attempts and physiological stress responses. The absence of mandatory pre-slaughter stunning in most producing countries is a major welfare gap.