New technologies for fish slaughter are transforming welfare outcomes in aquaculture, with percussive stunning, electrical systems and novel methods all under development and deployment.
Fish slaughter technology represents one of the most rapidly advancing areas of aquaculture welfare improvement. The transition from CO2 immersion — which causes pain before unconsciousness — to percussive and electrical stunning systems represents a categorical welfare advance for millions of individual fish. Norwegian regulatory requirements for salmon have driven industry investment in this technology, demonstrating that welfare regulation creates innovation. The challenge is extending these requirements globally, to smaller species, and across the wild-catch sector where vessel-side stunning remains rare but technically feasible.