Anaesthesia for fish during aquaculture procedures including vaccination, sampling, and transport reduces stress and injury, but its use in commercial aquaculture remains inconsistent.
The use of anaesthesia in fish aquaculture reflects a fundamental welfare question: do fish experience pain and stress during handling procedures in ways that warrant intervention? The scientific evidence increasingly supports that they do. The welfare gap between research standards (which routinely use anaesthesia) and commercial practice (which frequently does not) reflects cost pressures rather than welfare science. Certification schemes that require anaesthetic use for specified high-stress procedures, combined with industry investment in efficient anaesthetic protocols, can narrow this gap. Consumer demand for welfare-certified fish products creates economic incentive for producers to invest in better anaesthetic practice.