Atlantic cod farming experienced rapid growth and collapse in the 2000s due to biological and economic challenges. The lessons from this episode inform current welfare considerations for emerging cod aquaculture.
Cod farming's boom-bust cycle offers welfare lessons about what happens when animals with complex behavioral and biological needs are forced into production systems optimized for economics rather than species-appropriate conditions. Cod in high-density systems experience predator-prey stress within their own species (cannibalism), spatial restrictions incompatible with their active behavioral nature, and disease pressure from compromised immune systems. The spinal deformity rates documented in early cod farming were direct welfare indicators of conditions that did not meet the species' needs. If cod aquaculture is to be revived at scale, incorporating welfare considerations from the outset - appropriate densities, disease management, and behavioral accommodation - is both ethically required and economically sensible.