Fish feel pain, yet routine procedures in aquaculture are often performed without anaesthesia or analgesia. Improving pain management in fish farming is a critical welfare priority.
The assumption that fish do not feel pain has been scientifically overturned, yet practice in the aquaculture industry has not always caught up. Invasive procedures — vaccination by injection, fin punching for marking, scale removal, crowding for treatments — are performed on millions of fish without pain relief. Even brief acute pain can compromise immune function and cause lasting stress. Anaesthesia is available and practical for many procedures but adds cost and requires trained staff. Advancing fish pain management requires regulatory mandates, industry training, and development of practical low-cost anaesthetic protocols appropriate to different production scales.