Assessing pain in fish requires species-specific approaches and has advanced significantly, providing tools for welfare science and slaughter humaneness evaluation.
Fish pain assessment has advanced significantly in the past decade, with validated behavioural and physiological measures available for key aquaculture species. The evidence that fish experience pain is now sufficiently established to warrant welfare consideration in research and commercial contexts. Pain assessment tools enable evaluation of slaughter humaneness, procedural pain in research settings and welfare impacts of husbandry practices. Applying these tools to improve fish welfare - through better slaughter methods, less stressful handling and disease prevention - represents the practical translation of pain science into welfare improvement.