Pre-Slaughter Stunning of Farmed Fish

Most farmed fish are killed without prior stunning, causing prolonged pain and distress; percussive, electrical, and CO2 stunning methods are commercially available.

Key Facts

An estimated 73-180 billion farmed fish are slaughtered annually without prior stunning
Asphyxiation in air, ice slurry immersion, and CO2 exposure are common but welfare-poor slaughter methods
Electrical stunning renders fish insensible in milliseconds and is used by some high-welfare producers
The European Food Safety Authority concluded that all current industrial fish slaughter methods cause pain
Norway has introduced requirements for pre-slaughter stunning in salmon aquaculture

Welfare Considerations

The slaughter of farmed fish is one of the largest unremediated animal welfare problems on Earth by scale. Billions of fish per year die by methods that cause prolonged consciousness and suffering - asphyxiation in air takes 30 minutes or more, while ice slurry immersion suppresses activity but does not necessarily induce insensibility quickly. Effective, commercially deployed stunning technologies exist and are used by welfare-conscious producers, demonstrating that the barrier is economic and regulatory rather than technical. Mandating pre-slaughter stunning for farmed fish would represent one of the highest-impact single welfare policy interventions available.

What You Can Do

Choose fish products certified by standards requiring pre-slaughter stunning
Support NGOs campaigning for mandatory stunning in fish aquaculture regulations
Advocate for inclusion of fish in animal welfare at slaughter legislation
Encourage retailers to source from facilities with documented stunning protocols
Reduce farmed fish consumption or choose species from higher-welfare certified sources