Aquaculture

Farmed Salmon Welfare Indicators: Validated Measurement Tools

Validated welfare indicators for salmon enable consistent, comparable welfare assessment across farms and systems.

Key Facts

Operational welfare indicators (OWIs) for salmon include fin damage, eye condition, and behaviour
The FishWelFare project developed validated welfare assessment protocols for Atlantic salmon
Scoring systems applied at regular intervals track welfare trends and trigger management responses
Slaughter welfare indicators including stunning efficacy and time to insensibility are measurable

Welfare Considerations

Welfare measurement must be valid, reliable, and actionable to drive improvement. Validated salmon welfare indicators that can be consistently applied across farms enable benchmarking and trend monitoring that identify welfare problems and measure the effect of interventions.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture research institutions developing validated fish welfare assessment tools
Advocate for validated welfare indicator use in certified salmon aquaculture standards
Choose salmon from farms using published, validated welfare assessment protocols