Striped bass is an increasingly farmed species with growing consumer demand. Like all farmed fish, their welfare requires attention to density, water quality, and humane slaughter.
Farmed striped bass welfare shares challenges common to all carnivorous farmed fish: high stocking densities, limited behavioral complexity, disease risk, and inhumane slaughter practices. Their natural territorial behavior is suppressed but not eliminated by crowding, leading to chronic stress and physical injury. As a relatively new aquaculture species, welfare-specific research and standards are underdeveloped compared to salmon or trout. Applying existing fish welfare science to striped bass production — including pre-slaughter stunning and density limits based on behavioral indicators — would substantially improve outcomes.