The method used to kill fish at slaughter has major welfare implications, and practices vary enormously across species and production systems.
Fish slaughtered without stunning experience the full duration of killing procedures while conscious. Even slaughter methods marketed as humane, such as ice slurry, have been shown to involve prolonged periods of consciousness and distress. Electrical or percussive stunning provides rapid and reliable insensibility, and the technology is available for most commercial farmed species. Welfare at slaughter is a tractable improvement requiring investment and regulation.