Welfare challenges in eel aquaculture and how the industry can improve conditions for these sensitive fish.
Eel aquaculture presents a distinctive welfare challenge: as a species that cannot yet be bred commercially in captivity, farmed eels begin their lives as wild-caught juveniles whose capture from rivers and estuaries is itself a welfare event. The subsequent intensive rearing conditions — high densities, handling stress, and often poor slaughter practices — compound the welfare costs. Eel welfare science has lagged behind salmonid research, but what evidence exists confirms that eels experience stress responses and likely have capacity for pain relevant to welfare concern. The critically endangered status of European eels and the welfare concerns around all farmed eel species make this one of the more troubling seafood categories from a combined conservation and welfare perspective.