European and Japanese eels are farmed globally under conditions that raise significant welfare concerns. The species have complex biology and migration needs that intensive aquaculture struggles to accommodate.
Eel farming sits at a difficult intersection of conservation and welfare concerns. The European eel is critically endangered; farming reduces pressure on wild stocks if glass eels are not wild-caught — but most farming currently depends on wild-caught juveniles. The welfare science for eels is substantially less developed than for salmonids, and the conditions of intensive eel farming — high density, no enrichment, frustrated migratory behaviour, and inadequate slaughter standards — suggest significant chronic welfare compromise. The appropriate response is investment in welfare research, development of humane slaughter standards, and movement toward farming systems that accommodate eel behavioural complexity better than current tank-based intensive production.