As decapod crustaceans receive legal welfare recognition in the UK, crayfish welfare in aquaculture and wild fisheries requires attention informed by emerging sentience research.
Crayfish welfare sits at the emerging frontier of animal welfare law and science. The UK's extension of sentience protections to decapod crustaceans creates legal obligations to consider crayfish welfare in both aquaculture and capture contexts. Boiling live crayfish - a traditional culinary practice - is increasingly challenged as potentially causing suffering, with research showing behavioral and physiological responses consistent with pain during exposure to extreme heat. The welfare implications of trap capture include confinement stress and, for non-target species, the distress of prolonged trap exposure. Conservation crayfish management through trapping and translocation involves welfare costs that must be weighed against conservation benefits. The precautionary principle argues for implementing welfare measures while the science on crayfish pain experience continues to develop.