Abalone are increasingly farmed to relieve pressure on wild populations. Their welfare needs are poorly understood but growing evidence suggests they experience stress and pain.
Abalone occupy an intermediate position in the sentience debate. They have ganglia rather than a centralised brain, but behavioural and physiological evidence of stress responses warrants precautionary welfare consideration. Farmed abalone are held at high density on artificial substrates, a significant departure from their natural rock reef habitat. Temperature stress from climate change is increasingly compromising farmed abalone welfare and survival. Improving water quality management and reducing density reduces physiological indicators of stress.