Eel aquaculture raises significant welfare and sustainability concerns, with the industry relying on wild-caught juveniles and using methods that cause considerable fish suffering.
Eel aquaculture presents a convergence of welfare and conservation failures. The industry is not sustainable at its foundation — it depends on wild-caught juveniles from Critically Endangered populations. Farmed eels face welfare insults throughout their production cycle: high-density transport, intensive farming conditions, and inhumane slaughter. Eels respond to noxious stimuli in ways consistent with pain processing; the slow methods of killing commonly used almost certainly cause prolonged suffering. Salt slaughter, in which eels are packed in salt which causes writhing death over minutes, is one of the most inhumane practices in any food production system. Consumer awareness of both the conservation and welfare crisis in eel production is low.