Wild-caught fish experience acute stress during capture and may be alive for hours before death. The welfare of wild-caught fish is largely unregulated and rarely considered in fishing policy.
The scale of suffering in wild fish capture is almost incomprehensibly large. Trawled fish experience the terror of capture, crowding, and asphyxiation. Many are conscious throughout. Decompression injuries cause swim bladder rupture, protruding eyes, and organ damage in deep-water species. Hook injuries in line fisheries cause sustained pain. Unlike farmed fish, wild-caught fish welfare is almost entirely outside regulatory frameworks. This represents one of the largest unaddressed animal welfare issues on Earth.