Attempts to establish Atlantic cod aquaculture have faced significant challenges due to stress sensitivity, cannibalism, and the behavioral ecology of a species only recently brought into commercial production.
Farmed cod welfare illustrates the challenges of bringing a new species into aquaculture before the welfare science has developed adequately. Cod are not domesticated animals in the way that salmon have become after decades of selective breeding, and their stress responses, feeding behavior, and social dynamics in captive conditions create welfare challenges that are not yet fully understood or manageable. The economic marginalisation of cod aquaculture has reduced the urgency of welfare research investment. However, if cod farming expands as wild stocks recover under better management, welfare science investment will be needed to prevent the repetition of welfare problems that characterized early salmon aquaculture.