Fish farming produces over 50% of the fish humans eat, yet welfare standards for farmed fish lag far behind those for terrestrial farm animals. Improving aquaculture welfare is one of the most important animal welfare frontiers.
Aquaculture welfare represents one of the most significant and least addressed animal welfare issues by sheer number of animals affected. Billions of fish live in aquaculture systems with minimal welfare consideration, in crowded conditions that cause chronic stress, injury, and disease. The same scientific advances that have established fish pain processing capacity in the laboratory have not yet been translated into meaningful industry welfare standards. Norway, which produces the majority of global farmed salmon, has taken initial steps with welfare indicators, but global coverage is minimal. Consumer demand for welfare-certified aquaculture products, combined with regulatory development in major producing nations, is the most viable pathway to welfare improvements at scale.