Farmed European eels face welfare challenges from high density, handling stress, and declining wild populations that affect broodstock sourcing.
Eel farming raises multiple welfare concerns: wild-caught glass eels experience stress from capture and transport, farmed eels are kept in conditions that may not meet their behavioural needs for darkness and shelter, and the inability to breed eel in captivity means continuous pressure on wild populations. Improving welfare standards while developing captive breeding would address both individual and population welfare.