Welfare considerations for catfish farmed in the United States, one of the largest freshwater aquaculture industries.
US catfish farming operates largely outside meaningful welfare regulation despite scientific evidence that catfish are sentient and capable of suffering. Oxygen depletion events — where pond oxygen levels crash due to algal die-offs — cause mass mortality through what is effectively a suffocation process. Harvest involves crowding in nets and transport in crowded, often water-quality-compromised conditions. The regulatory framework that governs catfish production focuses on food safety, not welfare. As awareness of fish sentience grows, the absence of welfare standards for the most commonly farmed US fish species becomes increasingly difficult to justify.