Wild-caught salmon experience significant welfare impacts from commercial fishing methods, with some techniques causing less suffering than others.
Wild salmon caught in commercial fisheries typically experience prolonged, stressful death through exhaustion, hypoxia, and physical injury. The scale of wild salmon harvest means billions of individual animals experience this each year. While improving wild fish welfare is logistically challenging, targeted interventions including rapid on-board stunning, selective gear types, and on-vessel killing protocols can meaningfully reduce suffering per fish.