Despite growth in aquaculture certification, significant gaps in species coverage, welfare criteria, and enforcement leave most farmed fish without meaningful welfare protection.
The current state of aquaculture certification leaves the vast majority of farmed fish without welfare protection. Coverage gaps are multiple: most species are uncovered, most production occurs outside certification systems, and where certification exists, welfare criteria are often weak or absent. The result is a market where welfare labels provide limited meaningful assurance of animal experience improvement. Closing these gaps requires investment in species-specific welfare science, regulatory action mandating welfare standards in major producing countries, and retailer procurement policies that incentivise genuine welfare improvement. The scale of aquaculture welfare impact, affecting hundreds of billions of fish annually, makes closing these gaps a priority for the animal welfare movement.