Aquaculture feed has major welfare and sustainability implications. The shift from wild forage fish to alternative protein sources affects billions of animals across multiple species.
Aquaculture feed decisions involve welfare trade-offs across multiple species. Forage fish caught for fishmeal are sentient animals killed in large numbers without welfare consideration; their welfare during trawling and suffocation death is no different from any other fish. Alternative feeds create their own welfare considerations: insect meal production involves farming and killing potentially sentient invertebrates at scale; soy cultivation drives habitat destruction. Algae and single-cell protein production avoid most animal welfare concerns. The welfare-optimal direction for aquaculture feed is toward sources that do not involve large-scale animal killing — algae-derived oils, single-cell protein, and fermentation-derived nutrients — while carefully evaluating insect welfare as that sector grows.