The final hours and minutes of farmed fish lives — crowding, netting, transport, and slaughter — often involve the most acute suffering of their entire lives, yet receive the least welfare attention.
Whatever welfare standards operate during fish farming, slaughter represents a discrete event where all accumulated welfare investment can be negated by poor practice. Fish crowded at harvest show elevated cortisol, physical injury from contact with nets and equipment, and hypoxia from overcrowding. Air exposure without stunning causes disorientation and respiratory distress. Ice slurry kills by gradual asphyxiation — a process taking many minutes. The mismatch between welfare science and industry practice at slaughter is one of the most significant gaps in aquaculture welfare.