Shrimp is the most traded seafood product globally. The scale of shrimp farming, combined with growing evidence of decapod sentience, makes shrimp welfare one of the most significant and underaddressed animal welfare issues.
Shrimp welfare represents arguably the largest-scale welfare issue in animal agriculture given the numbers involved. Eyestalk ablation — the removal of the eyestalk to manipulate reproductive hormones — is performed on millions of female broodstock shrimp daily in standard industry practice, without pain relief. The evidence that decapod crustaceans experience pain makes this a serious welfare concern at enormous scale. Developing welfare standards for shrimp faces the challenge of low profit margins, geographically dispersed production predominantly in developing countries, and limited consumer awareness. The Shrimp Welfare Project is pioneering welfare assessment methods and working with producers on feasible improvements.