Global prawn aquaculture produces over 5 million tonnes annually with essentially no welfare standards. As evidence for crustacean sentience grows, the welfare implications for billions of farmed prawns deserve attention.
Farmed prawn welfare represents the largest unaddressed welfare challenge in aquaculture by sheer number of animals. If shrimp are sentient — and the evidence suggests they likely are — then the billions of farmed shrimp maintained in intensive, crowded pond systems without any welfare standards represent an enormous welfare concern. The practice of eyestalk ablation to induce spawning in broodstock females is particularly egregious: the eyestalk contains hormones that suppress reproductive development, and its removal causes acute injury and stress. Disease epidemics that kill billions of shrimp annually involve mass suffering. Consumer demand for certified sustainable shrimp has driven some environmental improvement, but welfare considerations have barely penetrated shrimp aquaculture standards. Extending the welfare framework applied to salmon and trout to shrimp production would require fundamental changes to industry practice.