Farmed prawns are produced in vast quantities in intensive systems. Evidence for decapod sentience makes their welfare conditions a growing ethical concern.
Farmed prawn welfare occupies an important and growing space in the animal welfare landscape. The UK Sentience Act recognition of decapod crustacean sentience reflects scientific evidence that prawns and shrimp have nociceptors and behavioral pain responses. Intensive farming conditions at hundreds of prawns per square meter impose chronic crowding stress. Eyestalk ablation — standard broodstock management — causes immediate pain and chronic physiological disruption. Mass mortality from disease represents catastrophic welfare events affecting billions of animals annually. The Shrimp Welfare Project and academic researchers are developing welfare assessment frameworks and advocating for industry adoption of stunning before slaughter.