Mediterranean aquaculture of sea bass and sea bream is a major industry, and welfare improvements in handling, stunning, and stocking density are increasingly being adopted.
Sea bream and sea bass in intensive cage systems experience repeated handling stress during grading, health treatments, and harvest. Crowding during these operations causes acute physiological stress responses. Chronic overcrowding leads to aggression, fin biting, and elevated baseline cortisol, all welfare indicators of poor condition. Producers adopting welfare outcome monitoring report that improvements in husbandry — better feeding technology, lower densities, and gentler handling — result in both better welfare and improved production efficiency, making the welfare-productivity trade-off smaller than often assumed.