Aquaculture

Farmed Prawn Welfare in Tropical Aquaculture

Farmed prawns represent billions of individual animals produced annually, yet welfare standards and practices remain significantly underdeveloped.

Key Facts

Global prawn aquaculture produces over 5 million tonnes annually
Prawns show nociceptive responses and may experience pain based on neural evidence
Ammonia toxicity in high-density systems causes physiological stress and death
Pre-slaughter practices including freezing or ice slurry cause slow death
Eyestalk ablation to accelerate maturation causes chronic pain without anaesthesia

Welfare Considerations

Prawns are produced in enormous numbers with minimal welfare consideration. The evidence for prawn sentience, while less certain than for vertebrates, is sufficient to warrant applying the precautionary principle. Eliminating the most clearly painful practices (eyestalk ablation, boiling alive) would represent significant welfare improvement with minimal production impact.

What You Can Do

Choose prawn products certified under schemes with welfare standards
Support organisations working to improve prawn welfare in aquaculture
Advocate for research funding to better understand prawn sentience and welfare needs