Aquaculture welfare certification has advanced significantly in recent years, raising the floor for farmed fish welfare.
Aquaculture welfare certification has evolved from almost nonexistent to a meaningful driver of welfare improvement across the sector in a relatively short time. Major retailers committing to sourcing from welfare-certified operations have created market incentives that drive producer adoption. Standards continue to improve as welfare science advances — stunning requirements, stocking density limits, and disease management protocols have all been strengthened in recent certification revisions. The gap between best practice and average practice remains large, but certification has demonstrably raised welfare floors across participating operations, reducing the suffering of billions of individual farmed fish.