Common carp and related species are the most produced farmed fish globally, yet welfare standards lag far behind other aquaculture species. Improving carp welfare has enormous potential impact.
Carp welfare receives relatively little attention despite the species' enormous global production volume. The scale of carp farming means that even modest welfare improvements would benefit hundreds of millions of individual fish. Key welfare concerns include overcrowding in intensive ponds, which causes chronic stress, aggression, and disease; poor water quality from uneaten feed and waste accumulation; and inhumane slaughter practices including live chilling and asphyxiation in air. Carp are hardy fish that tolerate poor conditions physiologically — but tolerance does not mean absence of suffering. Angling welfare research confirms carp experience pain from hook injuries and benefit from careful handling and rapid return. At commercial scale, the most impactful improvements are optimized stocking densities, water quality monitoring, and pre-slaughter stunning.