Standardised welfare scoring systems for farmed Atlantic salmon have been developed to enable consistent assessment of welfare across farm sites and production systems.
Welfare scoring systems for salmon represent a significant advance in aquaculture welfare assessment. By standardising how welfare is measured, they enable comparison between farms, identification of welfare hotspots, and tracking of improvement trends. The challenge is ensuring that indicators are validated against fish welfare outcomes, not just easily measured proxies. Mandating welfare scoring and making results publicly available would enable consumer and retailer choices to be informed by verified welfare data.