Seafood welfare labelling is still in its infancy compared to terrestrial animal products, leaving consumers with little guidance on which purchases minimise fish and crustacean suffering in production systems.
The absence of robust welfare labelling for seafood means that consumers who care about fish and crustacean suffering have limited tools for making informed choices. Sustainability labels like the MSC blue tick communicate nothing about whether fish were stunned before slaughter, crowded beyond welfare thresholds, or exposed to high parasite burdens. The gap is partly knowledge-driven — welfare indicators for aquatic species are still being developed — and partly commercial, as welfare improvements cost money that labels need to justify. Building consumer demand for welfare-specific seafood labels is one of the key pressure points for improving conditions in aquaculture and wild capture fisheries.