Legal protections for fish and aquatic animals lag significantly behind those for terrestrial mammals, creating a welfare governance gap that leaves billions of aquatic animals without basic protection from unnecessary suffering.
The welfare governance gap for aquatic animals means that practices routinely prohibited for terrestrial animals — crushing, asphyxiation, or prolonged suffering — are legal and widespread in fish production. Legislative change lags scientific understanding by decades in this domain. Advocacy for stronger aquatic animal welfare laws is among the highest-leverage welfare interventions available given the enormous numbers of fish and other aquatic animals involved and the current absence of meaningful protection.