Aquatic invertebrates including cephalopods and crustaceans are increasingly used in research, with welfare protections evolving to match growing evidence of their sentience.
Aquatic invertebrate research welfare is at the frontier of animal welfare science: regulations have expanded to cover cephalopods and crustaceans based on sentience evidence, but the practical welfare procedures for these groups are less developed than for vertebrates. Humane endpoints for cephalopods, effective anaesthesia for crustaceans, and enrichment for captive-held individuals are active research areas. The regulatory expansion represents welfare progress, but practical implementation requires significant further development of species-appropriate welfare procedures.