Research into pre-slaughter stunning for farmed salmon is advancing rapidly, driven by growing recognition of fish sentience and consumer welfare demands.
Salmon pre-slaughter stunning represents one of the highest-impact welfare improvements available to the aquaculture industry. The number of salmon killed annually — in the hundreds of millions — means that even small per-animal welfare improvements translate to enormous aggregate benefit. Percussive stunning, when correctly applied, provides immediate insensibility eliminating conscious suffering during slaughter. Automated systems make this commercially practical at scale. Industry adoption has been partly driven by certification scheme requirements — demonstrating the effectiveness of consumer-facing welfare standards as a market mechanism for industry improvement.