Channel catfish farming is the largest aquaculture industry in the United States, with welfare challenges specific to warm-water pond culture and processing conditions.
US farmed catfish welfare suffers most during harvest and transport. The pond-crowding and pump-loading process for harvest causes severe hypoxia, physical trauma from crowding, and acute stress. Transport to processing plants in crowded tanks with limited oxygen is a significant welfare problem. Processing line welfare depends heavily on the efficacy of electrical stunning — inconsistent stunning leads to fish regaining consciousness during subsequent killing steps. Oxygen depletion events from algae crashes in summer months cause mass mortality preceded by prolonged hypoxia. Improvements including better oxygenation management, more humane harvest methods, and more consistent stunning protocols would substantially reduce catfish suffering at scale.