Farmed sea bream — gilthead sea bream in particular — is a major Mediterranean aquaculture species with welfare challenges related to density, disease, and slaughter practices.
Gilthead sea bream welfare in Mediterranean aquaculture parallels European sea bass welfare challenges: these are schooling fish farmed at densities that disrupt natural social behavior, in conditions that promote disease, with slaughter practices that vary from welfare-positive to deeply inadequate. The size of Mediterranean sea bream aquaculture — producing hundreds of thousands of tonnes annually — means that welfare improvements at the industry level would affect enormous numbers of fish. The evidence base for sea bream sentience and pain capacity is sufficient to support precautionary welfare standards, and the welfare science community has made recommendations that regulatory bodies have yet to fully implement.