Eel aquaculture faces unique welfare challenges as eels cannot be bred in captivity and all farmed individuals begin as wild-caught glass eels, creating welfare concerns throughout the supply chain.
Eel welfare in aquaculture spans multiple welfare concerns. Capture of wild glass eels involves high mortality and stress. Intensive pond or tank rearing at high densities causes chronic stress. Disease management in eel farms involves chemical treatments with welfare implications. Most critically, traditional eel slaughter practices in many countries involve methods that cause prolonged suffering — particularly smoking without prior stunning, skinning of live eels, and other traditional practices. Welfare science now supports stunning before slaughter as the minimum requirement. Regulatory frameworks for eel slaughter welfare are improving in some countries but remain absent or unenforced in others.