The final hours and minutes of farmed salmon welfare are determined by pre-slaughter and slaughter practices. Evidence-based standards can eliminate significant preventable suffering.
Pre-slaughter welfare for farmed salmon represents a welfare improvement that is technically achievable and increasingly required by regulation. The transition away from CO2 immersion (which research showed causes distress comparable to CO2 in other animals) toward electrical stunning demonstrates that regulatory requirements drive meaningful change. Electrical stunning applied correctly renders fish immediately unconscious before the killing blow or exsanguination. The challenge is ensuring consistency across large-scale industrial slaughter where millions of fish pass through systems rapidly. Equipment calibration, staff training, and monitoring protocols all affect whether stunning is effective. Consumer certification labeling based on slaughter method would create market incentives for adoption, complementing regulatory requirements.