Wild Fish Welfare in Commercial Fisheries

Commercial fisheries kill approximately 1-2 trillion wild fish annually — making wild catch fisheries one of the largest sources of animal welfare harm globally, by number of individuals.

Key Facts

Approximately 1-2 trillion fish are caught from wild fisheries globally each year
Methods including trawling, gillnetting, and longlining all cause welfare harm through injury, suffocation, and barotrauma
Trawled fish experience crushing pressure changes as nets are hauled from depth
Fish in gillnets struggle against mesh for hours before hauling, causing exhaustion and injuries
Some fisheries use rapid chilling methods to reduce suffering; most do not address fish welfare systematically

Welfare Considerations

Wild fish welfare is the largest scale welfare problem in terms of numbers of individuals affected, yet receives almost no regulatory attention. Fish caught in trawls experience crush injuries and barotrauma as the net is hauled to the surface. Fish caught in gillnets struggle for hours before dying of exhaustion, gill damage, or asphyxiation when hauled. Longhook fish may be alive for extended periods on lines before hauling. The welfare harms are real, large-scale, and largely unaddressed. Consumer choice of lower-impact fishing methods and advocacy for welfare standards in fisheries management are the most available levers for improvement.

What You Can Do

Choose seafood from fisheries using lower-impact gear with less welfare harm where alternatives exist
Support MSC and other certification schemes that include gear welfare considerations
Advocate for welfare impact to be included in fisheries management assessments
Support research into selective gear modifications that reduce capture suffering
Engage with wild fish welfare as an overlooked but enormous welfare challenge in public discourse