Wild salmon face significant welfare challenges during migration including dam barriers, elevated water temperatures, and predation at bottlenecks. Conservation interventions increasingly consider fish welfare.
Wild salmon welfare sits at the intersection of conservation biology and animal welfare ethics. The evidence that salmon experience pain and stress is now substantial enough to include them in welfare considerations. Dam fish ladders represent an imperfect solution - fish can pass, but at significant energetic and welfare cost. Thermal stress from warming rivers is increasingly causing what researchers describe as suffering in salmon that reach thermal maximums before spawning. Interventions that improve flow, reduce temperature, and remove unnecessary barriers serve both conservation and welfare goals simultaneously.