Sustainable seafood certification increasingly incorporates fish welfare criteria. Understanding the intersection of sustainability and welfare helps consumers make better choices.
Sustainable seafood and fish welfare are complementary but distinct objectives. A sustainably managed fishery can still inflict significant welfare costs: suffocation, barotrauma and prolonged dying in nets affect every fish caught. Aquaculture that is environmentally certified may still use inhumane slaughter methods. The emerging fish welfare certification space is developing tools to address welfare beyond sustainability. Consumers who demand both sustainability and welfare labelling create the market signal needed for comprehensive certification development.