Scientific consensus on fish sentience has evolved substantially, with implications for fishing welfare standards, aquaculture practice, and legal protections.
The evolution of scientific understanding of fish sentience has policy implications for billions of animals. If fish experience pain and negative states, current fishing and aquaculture practices involving prolonged suffocation, barotrauma, and crowding cause suffering on an enormous scale. Expanding legal protections and welfare standards to fish requires political will that lags behind scientific evidence.