Carp is the most farmed fish globally by weight. As a highly intelligent fish with complex behaviors, carp welfare in intensive aquaculture deserves serious consideration.
Carp welfare receives little attention relative to salmon or shrimp despite carp being the world most produced farmed fish species. These intelligent fish display social behavior, learn from experience, and show responses to noxious stimuli consistent with pain experience. Intensive carp farming at high density imposes chronic crowding stress; live transport and holding under market conditions causes prolonged stress and depleted oxygen exposure; and slaughter methods including live sale without stunning cause prolonged suffering. The scale of carp production — tens of millions of tonnes annually — means that welfare improvements would benefit more individual fish than improvements in almost any other species. Consumer and regulatory attention to carp welfare has been minimal, representing a significant gap in aquaculture welfare advocacy.