While salmon welfare has received growing attention, billions of other farmed fish species including tilapia, carp, pangasius, and shrimp face significant welfare challenges that are less well understood.
Aquaculture welfare advocacy has focused disproportionately on salmon in wealthy country markets while the majority of farmed fish by number are produced in lower-welfare systems in the developing world. Welfare science for carp, tilapia, pangasius, and shrimp is underdeveloped relative to their production volumes. The welfare advocacy gap for these species represents both a challenge and an opportunity: early investment in welfare research and standards development for high-volume lower-income country species could benefit hundreds of billions of individuals.