Atlantic salmon are the most farmed fish species globally. Net pen aquaculture subjects them to crowding, disease, and handling stress. Understanding their welfare needs is essential for reform.
Atlantic salmon welfare in conventional net pen aquaculture is compromised by crowding, disease, and handling stress across their production cycle. High stocking densities create chronic social stress and increase competition for resources. Disease outbreaks — particularly sea lice — cause skin lesions and physiological stress. Treatments themselves cause additional welfare harms. At slaughter, many salmon globally are not effectively stunned before killing — they may experience consciousness during the killing process. Crowding prior to slaughter causes pre-slaughter stress that affects both welfare and flesh quality. Research increasingly confirms salmon have the neurological capacity for pain experience, making their welfare at scale — with billions farmed annually — a significant ethical concern. Higher-welfare production requires lower densities, disease management without welfare-harmful treatments, and effective stunning.