Aquaculture

Global Fish Welfare — Scale and Priorities

With trillions of fish harvested annually, fish welfare represents the largest-scale welfare challenge in animal agriculture.

Key Facts

An estimated 1-2.3 trillion fish are caught from the wild and in aquaculture annually
This is orders of magnitude more animals than in all land animal agriculture combined
Welfare interventions for fish can benefit individual welfare across this enormous scale
Priority welfare issues include slaughter methods, stocking density, disease management, and stunning
UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act protections cover fish; EUFA covers aquaculture fish in some contexts

Welfare Considerations

The sheer scale of fish use means that even modest welfare improvements per fish translate to enormous aggregate benefit. Fish welfare is the largest-scale welfare problem in animal use and deserves priority attention and resources proportional to this scale. Progress on fish welfare is accelerating but lags far behind the scale of the problem.

What You Can Do

Support fish welfare research and advocacy organisations
Choose fish from certified welfare-conscious sources
Advocate for fish welfare to receive regulatory attention proportional to fish use
Reduce fish consumption or shift to lower-impact alternatives
Engage with fish welfare science to stay informed on a rapidly evolving field