Billions of fish and other marine animals die as unintended bycatch in commercial fishing operations every year. Understanding and reducing this hidden welfare cost is one of the most significant challenges in global fisheries.
Wild fish bycatch represents one of the largest-scale welfare harms caused by human activity. The deaths are neither quick nor humane: fish brought up from depth suffer barotrauma as internal organs expand due to pressure change; fish discarded at sea often die slowly from injury or suffocation; air exposure causes physiological stress before death. The scale is staggering - tens of billions of individual sentient animals dying as unintended consequences of fishing for other species. While the welfare implications for fish are often minimized, the same fishing methods kill dolphins, sea turtles, seabirds, and other animals whose suffering is unambiguously recognized. Addressing bycatch is both an ecological and welfare priority.