Examining the welfare considerations in yellow perch aquaculture — a growing North American freshwater fish industry — and opportunities to improve conditions in this sector.
Yellow perch aquaculture represents a case where the species' natural behavioral tendencies — schooling in dense groups — create some alignment between natural behavior and aquaculture conditions. However, the welfare research base is thin, and management decisions are often made on production rather than welfare grounds. The cannibalism challenge is both a production and welfare problem: size grading interventions involve handling stress, while failure to grade allows smaller fish to be injured and killed by larger cohort members. RAS production environments allow more consistent water quality management that benefits welfare through predictable conditions, but also require vigilance against aeration failures that can cause rapid welfare deterioration.