Sea bass farming in the Mediterranean faces specific welfare challenges including crowding stress, disease management, and slaughter practices that affect millions of fish annually.
Sea bass welfare represents a significant but less visible welfare challenge compared to Atlantic salmon, despite comparable production scales. Mediterranean sea bass farming often operates in net pens exposed to environmental temperature extremes, with stocking densities that cause measurable stress. The slaughter welfare situation - ice slurry immersion without stunning causing a protracted death - is a major welfare concern that progressive producers are beginning to address through electrical stunning. Consumer and retail pressure has been effective in driving salmon welfare improvements and similar pressure on sea bass could drive analogous change.