Advanced welfare science for farmed shrimp, covering nociception research, stocking density impacts, disease management, and emerging welfare standards for the global shrimp aquaculture industry.
Shrimp welfare is one of the most significant gaps in current animal welfare science and regulation, given the scale of production and growing evidence of decapod sentience. Billions of shrimp experience the full cycle of intensive aquaculture — from high-density nursery conditions through crowded grow-out ponds to harvest and slaughter — with essentially no welfare protections in most countries. Advances in shrimp welfare science are beginning to provide the evidence base needed for regulatory change, but translating research into industry standards requires significant effort. The Shrimp Welfare Project and related organizations are working to develop practical welfare interventions for what is essentially an unregulated industry at the bottom of the aquatic welfare priority list.