Salmon hatcheries produce billions of fish annually for aquaculture and conservation stocking. Welfare conditions during early life stages significantly affect both hatchery performance and long-term fish health.
Hatchery conditions during salmon early life have lasting consequences for welfare throughout the production cycle. Chronic stress in hatchery tanks programmes stress physiology in ways that affect resistance to disease and tolerance of subsequent farming conditions. Improving hatchery welfare is therefore both an ethical imperative and a practical investment in long-term fish health. The relatively controlled environment of hatcheries means welfare improvements are often more practically achievable than in open-water production, making hatchery reform a high-leverage point in the aquaculture welfare system.