The final hours before slaughter represent a critical welfare period for farmed Atlantic salmon, involving crowding, handling, and killing methods that range widely in humaneness.
Farmed salmon experience their greatest welfare challenges at the end of their lives. High-density crowding during harvest creates a cascade of stress responses measurable in cortisol, behavior, and physical damage. Killing methods vary dramatically in their humaneness: properly executed percussive stunning followed by rapid bleeding can minimize suffering, while CO2 immersion or asphyxiation involve prolonged conscious distress. Improving slaughter welfare for the billions of fish harvested annually represents one of the highest-impact interventions in aquaculture.