The welfare of farmed salmon at slaughter is a critical welfare moment affecting millions of fish. Evidence-based stunning and slaughter practices can significantly reduce suffering.
The minutes surrounding salmon slaughter are a welfare priority precisely because the suffering is acute, occurs at scale, and is entirely preventable with available technology. A salmon killed by gill cut without prior stunning may remain conscious for minutes while experiencing hemorrhage and hypoxia. Percussive and electrical stunning eliminates or dramatically reduces this conscious experience of death. The technology exists and is economically viable at commercial scale — the barrier is primarily inertia and regulatory pressure.