Farmed prawns are produced in extraordinary numbers with minimal welfare consideration. The scale of the sector and emerging evidence on crustacean sentience make this a priority welfare issue.
The scale of farmed prawn production means that even small improvements in individual welfare conditions would affect staggering numbers of animals. The evidence for prawn sentience, while not as definitive as for vertebrates, is sufficiently strong to warrant serious precautionary welfare consideration. Current production conditions including extreme crowding, poor water quality, disease outbreaks affecting large proportions of stocks, and slaughter without stunning expose hundreds of billions of animals annually to conditions that may involve significant suffering. The first welfare standards for prawns are beginning to appear in certification schemes, but adoption remains limited. Consumer pressure at the retail level, where welfare labelling is most actionable, is one of the most effective available mechanisms for driving industry change at this scale.