How overcrowding in shrimp aquaculture creates welfare problems and what better farming practices look like.
Shrimp are routinely farmed at extremely high densities that would be considered unacceptable for vertebrate species, partly because their capacity for suffering has historically been questioned. However, growing evidence suggests shrimp have nociceptive systems capable of detecting and responding to harmful stimuli in ways that matter morally. Overcrowding causes direct physical harm through increased aggression and disease, as well as chronic stress from oxygen depletion and inability to express natural behaviour. Given the enormous scale of shrimp production, improving stocking density standards would affect billions of animals.