Commercial fishing causes suffering for billions of wild fish annually through bycatch, barotrauma, and prolonged survival on deck. Improvements in fishing practice reduce this suffering at scale.
Wild fish welfare in commercial fishing receives virtually no attention in the regulatory frameworks that govern fisheries management. Yet the scale of potential suffering — trillions of fish experiencing barotrauma, crush injury, hypoxia, and prolonged dying on deck annually — dwarfs the welfare harm from all other animal uses combined if fish are sentient. The welfare-positive approach does not require resolving all uncertainty about fish consciousness — it applies the precautionary principle at scale: reducing suffering wherever possible through selective gears, reduced discards, and more rapid killing of caught fish. The alignment with fisheries sustainability goals is direct — bycatch reduction and selective fishing protect both fish welfare and ecosystem health.