Sustainable seafood certification has historically focused on environmental sustainability rather than animal welfare, but the two agendas are increasingly converging.
Sustainable seafood and welfare agendas should be natural allies because the ecological and individual welfare costs of overfishing, destructive fishing methods, and intensive aquaculture are often the same. High-bycatch fishing harms both fish population sustainability and the individual welfare of bycatch animals. Crowded aquaculture causes both disease susceptibility (an environmental risk) and welfare harm (an individual animal cost). Integrating welfare criteria into sustainability standards would strengthen both agendas and provide consumers with more complete information about the impacts of their seafood choices.