Eels are widely farmed for food in Europe and Asia but face severe welfare challenges including high stocking densities, handling stress, and poorly understood slaughter methods.
Eel aquaculture presents compounded welfare challenges. The animals themselves show strong stress responses to handling and confinement, producing mucus, attempting escape, and showing physiological indicators of chronic stress in high-density systems. The slaughter methods used in many eel farms — including live chilling or cutting without prior stunning — cause avoidable suffering. The welfare science base for eels is substantially less developed than for salmon or trout, meaning many husbandry and slaughter practices were established without robust welfare evidence. Simultaneously, the eel aquaculture sector is linked to the catastrophic decline of wild European eel populations through reliance on wild-caught glass eels for stocking, creating both welfare and conservation concerns.