Silver carp are among the most produced fish globally, farmed extensively in Asia. As filter feeders requiring minimal supplemental feed, they present unique welfare considerations.
Silver carp welfare in aquaculture has received limited research attention despite enormous production volumes. Their filter-feeding lifestyle means their welfare is tightly linked to water quality — phytoplankton blooms and oxygen fluctuations directly affect their feeding ability and physiological stress levels. In polyculture ponds, competition for dissolved oxygen during summer nights creates hypoxic conditions that all carp species experience as distress. Crowding during seine net harvest causes the same acute stress seen in other pond-reared fish: extreme crowding, physical injury from net contact, and oxygen depletion. Slaughter typically involves air asphyxiation or ice slurry without prior stunning. Despite their low production cost and efficiency, silver carp experience suffering under current production norms that regulatory improvement could meaningfully reduce.