Jellyfish are increasingly harvested as food and face growing bycatch pressure. Their welfare status is uncertain but warrants precautionary consideration.
Jellyfish welfare presents genuine uncertainty. Their diffuse nerve nets respond to stimuli and produce behavioural responses, but whether this involves subjective experience is unknown. The precautionary principle suggests avoiding unnecessary suffering, but without clear sentience evidence, jellyfish occupy a lower priority than vertebrates and crustaceans. Growing jellyfish fisheries are unregulated in most regions, raising sustainability rather than welfare as the more pressing near-term concern.