Millions of hatchery-raised fish are stocked annually in lakes and rivers for recreational fishing. The welfare challenges of hatchery life and stocking transition are significant and increasingly recognized.
Recreational fish stocking involves welfare harms at multiple stages: hatchery conditions that cause chronic stress, transport that causes acute stress, and stocking into environments where fish face immediate predation and environmental challenges from a position of physiological compromise. The welfare of stocked fish is rarely considered in stocking programs, which prioritize providing fishing opportunity over fish welfare. The scale is enormous - billions of fish annually - making even small per-animal improvements potentially significant in aggregate. Growing recognition of fish sentience is beginning to prompt welfare consideration in stocking programs, but regulatory frameworks are minimal. Catch-and-release fishing after stocking raises additional welfare questions about the appropriateness of stressing fish that are already physiologically compromised.