Welfare considerations for farmed striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and hybrid striped bass, a growing aquaculture species in North American markets.
Hybrid striped bass aquaculture represents a growing but welfare-understudied sector of US fish production. As a predatory, active schooling fish, striped bass have welfare needs that intensive tank and pond systems frequently fail to meet: their natural behavioral repertoire involves open-water schooling, active pursuit of prey, and significant daily movement distances that cannot be approximated in even large commercial systems. High stocking densities generate both water quality problems and behavioral welfare problems — aggressive interactions between conspecifics at high density cause fin damage and stress that compound over the production cycle. Cannibalism among size-mismatched individuals represents a significant welfare harm affecting both the consumed and consuming animals. Disease management challenges require regular handling operations that create acute stress. The lack of species-specific welfare research means that husbandry recommendations are largely extrapolated from salmonid or other finfish research rather than based on striped bass-specific behavioral and physiological understanding. Building a species-specific welfare evidence base for striped bass should be a priority as production volume increases.