Fish welfare policy is developing globally but significant gaps remain between scientific evidence and regulatory requirements.
Fish welfare policy globally lags significantly behind mammal and bird welfare despite fish constituting the largest number of farmed vertebrates. The scientific consensus on fish sentience has advanced far ahead of regulatory responses. Where legislation exists, it tends to focus on prevention of unnecessary suffering without providing positive welfare standards. The most effective welfare improvement mechanisms to date have been market-based: certification schemes and retailer sourcing requirements that exceed legal minimums. Policy development that incorporates fish welfare science would benefit hundreds of billions of individual fish annually.