Pre-slaughter conditions for farmed Atlantic salmon are a major welfare concern. Crowding, handling, and stunning practices in the hours before slaughter cause significant suffering that can be reduced.
The pre-slaughter phase for farmed salmon represents a concentrated period of preventable suffering. The crowding that precedes harvest, the handling and transfer, and the stunning process itself all impose welfare costs that vary enormously based on how each step is managed. Farms using high-density pre-crowding pens, ineffective CO2 narcosis, or electrical stunning that is not calibrated for effectiveness may cause prolonged, intense suffering in hundreds of thousands of fish per harvest. The available technologies for achieving rapid, reliable pre-slaughter insensibility are mature and accessible; the barriers to their adoption are primarily economic and regulatory. Consumer certification choices and retailer sourcing standards are among the most powerful drivers of adoption, as they create market incentives for pre-slaughter welfare investment.