The welfare of fish at slaughter in commercial fisheries is a largely unregulated area where simple interventions could reduce suffering at enormous scale.
Fish slaughter welfare is the largest unaddressed animal welfare issue in terms of individual animals affected, with trillions of fish caught and killed annually without any welfare consideration. Even partial implementation of humane slaughter techniques in aquaculture, which accounts for roughly 50% of seafood production, would produce an enormous reduction in suffering. Consumer demand for humanely slaughtered seafood is a powerful lever for change.