Scientific evidence is building that some aquatic invertebrates including octopuses, crabs and lobsters can experience pain, raising welfare questions for fisheries and aquaculture.
Aquatic invertebrate welfare is a rapidly developing field with significant implications for fisheries, restaurants and aquaculture. The evidence that crabs, lobsters and octopuses can experience pain is now sufficient to warrant welfare consideration under the precautionary principle. Boiling live lobsters or crabs causes prolonged suffering. Electrical stunning or spiking the brain provides more rapid death. Policy is evolving to catch up with science, but commercial practice lags considerably. Chefs, consumers and seafood businesses that want to act on the science can adopt humane killing methods now without waiting for regulatory requirements.