Billions of wild crustaceans are caught commercially each year. Growing evidence that crabs, lobsters, and shrimp can experience pain makes the welfare implications of wild-caught crustacean fisheries a serious ethical concern.
The welfare evidence for crustaceans has strengthened considerably in recent years. Multiple independent research groups have documented nociceptor systems, stress hormones, and aversive learning in crabs, lobsters, and shrimp that are consistent with pain experience. Bottom trawling imposes multiple welfare harms: compression under the weight of the catch, prolonged air exposure causing respiratory stress, and injury from contact with net and other animals. Live boiling as a killing method — applied to an animal that may experience pain — is now viewed with increasing concern by welfare scientists. The UK’s legal extension of welfare protections to decapods and cephalopods in 2022 reflects the direction of scientific consensus.