Marine fish experience significant welfare challenges in both wild fishing and aquaculture contexts, yet receive the least welfare consideration of any major animal group.
Marine fish welfare represents the final frontier of animal welfare consideration - the largest group of vertebrates by number that humans use and affect, yet the group with the weakest welfare protections. Wild-caught fish experience extreme physiological insults during capture: the rapid pressure changes of ascent from depth cause barotrauma with organ rupture; exhaustion from fighting nets; crushing from other fish; and ultimately death by suffocation over minutes. These welfare costs occur at a scale of trillions of individual animals annually. Despite this, wild fishing is subject to essentially no welfare regulation in most countries. The evidence that fish experience pain, stress, and fear has crossed the threshold where ignoring welfare considerations is scientifically defensible. The challenge is translating this scientific recognition into practical welfare improvements for an industry operating at sea with limited visibility.