Aquaculture

Animal Welfare in Aquaculture Slaughter

The slaughter of farmed fish occurs largely without stunning, causing significant preventable suffering across billions of individual animals in global aquaculture systems.

Key Facts

Around 73-180 billion farmed fish are killed for food annually
Most farmed fish are killed by methods causing prolonged consciousness — CO2, asphyxiation, or ice
Electrical stunning followed by killing is humane and feasible at commercial scale
EU regulations require stunning before slaughter for farmed fish in principle
Enforcement and adoption of humane slaughter methods remain inadequate globally

Welfare Considerations

Fish slaughter without stunning causes sustained suffering during the dying process. CO2 narcosis causes distress before unconsciousness. Ice slurry asphyxiation leaves fish conscious for 5-15 minutes. Percussion stunning followed by gill-cut or spiking is humane when correctly performed. The scale — tens of billions of animals — makes slaughter method reform one of the highest-impact welfare interventions available in food systems.

What You Can Do

Support mandatory stunning requirements for farmed fish in national legislation
Choose seafood from certified humanely slaughtered sources when available
Advocate with food companies and retailers for humane slaughter supply chain requirements
Support research into scalable humane slaughter technology for farmed fish
Reduce fish consumption overall — the largest welfare impact reduction action available