Eel aquaculture raises serious welfare concerns, complicated by significant gaps in understanding of eel biology and sentience. As demand grows, addressing welfare in this sector becomes increasingly urgent.
Eel welfare exists at the intersection of sentience evidence, conservation crisis, and near-total regulatory absence. Wild glass eel capture to stock farms is simultaneously harming wild populations and creating welfare harms through handling, transport, and farming conditions. Slaughter without stunning is standard practice and clearly causes suffering based on eel pain responses. The regulatory vacuum for eel welfare means progress depends almost entirely on voluntary industry action and consumer pressure.