Turbot is a high-value flatfish farmed in intensive recirculating and flow-through systems, with specific welfare needs related to its bottom-dwelling lifestyle and sensitivity to water quality.
Farmed turbot can experience welfare problems related to stocking density, water quality, and handling. Although their flat shape allows tight stacking, excessive density causes competition, injury, and chronic stress. Turbot use lateral line receptors and visual cues to navigate and feed, and overcrowded tanks impair these normal behaviours. Parasitic infections, particularly cryptobiosis, cause significant suffering in farm settings. Slaughter methods vary widely in humaneness across producers.