Eels are among the most widely consumed fish globally, yet their welfare in aquaculture systems has received minimal scientific attention despite their unique biology and behavioral needs.
Eel welfare represents a significant gap in aquaculture welfare attention and regulation. The biological peculiarity of eels — critically endangered but still farmed, impossible to breed in captivity but harvested as wild juveniles, highly motivated to migrate but confined in dense ponds — creates welfare challenges that are both distinctive and underaddressed. The behaviors eels express when their migratory drives activate — restlessness, escape attempts, disrupted feeding — indicate chronic frustration of strong behavioral motivation. Slaughter practices are unregulated in most jurisdictions, meaning eels are frequently killed by methods that welfare scientists would consider inhumane. The conservation dimension adds urgency: every glass eel removed from wild populations depletes a critically endangered stock, and the welfare of each individual caught and farmed matters both intrinsically and as part of a conservation crisis.