Pre-slaughter fish welfare encompasses the final hours of life including crowding, pump transfer, live chilling, and stunning. This period involves some of the highest welfare risks in aquaculture and requires specific attention and standards.
The pre-slaughter period in fish farming involves some of the most severe acute welfare challenges in animal production. Crowding-induced hypoxia causes acute distress; pump transfer causes physical trauma; live chilling without stunning prolongs suffering during dying. These welfare costs are not inevitable - effective stunning methods exist for the major farmed species. The persistence of poor welfare slaughter methods reflects inadequate regulation and market pressure for welfare-certified fish products rather than technical impossibility.