Prawn and shrimp aquaculture affects tens of billions of crustaceans annually with welfare challenges including crowding, disease, and slaughter practices.
Farmed prawn welfare sits at a critical intersection of scale — billions of animals — and scientific uncertainty about crustacean sentience. The precautionary case for applying welfare considerations to farmed prawns is increasingly strong: their nociceptor systems, avoidance learning, and behavioral responses to injury are consistent with pain capacity. Eyestalk ablation — a mutilation performed on hundreds of millions of female broodstock annually to stimulate reproduction — is a welfare concern with available alternatives that are not widely adopted. High-density production and crude slaughter methods add to the welfare burden. Consumer awareness of prawn farming welfare conditions is very low, and targeted pressure could accelerate adoption of more humane practices.