Atlantic salmon farming is a major global industry with significant welfare challenges. Growing scientific understanding is driving improvements in standards and practices.
Farmed salmon experience welfare impacts throughout their lives — from crowding stress in net pens, through parasite infestation and painful treatments, to variable quality slaughter. The scale is enormous: billions of individual fish. Fish welfare has received insufficient attention historically, but scientific evidence of fish sentience is now robust enough to demand serious welfare consideration. Industry leaders are implementing improvements, but standards remain inconsistent across markets.