Aquaculture

Farmed Salmon Welfare Benchmarking

Welfare benchmarking in salmon farming enables performance comparison and identification of best practices that can be shared across the industry.

Key Facts

Norwegian salmon farms now publicly report mortality rates, lice counts, and medicine use
Benchmarking databases enable farms to compare performance against industry averages
Best-practice farms achieving lowest lice and mortality levels share management approaches
Welfare benchmarking is increasingly required by major salmon buyers in key markets
Standardised welfare indicators are needed for meaningful cross-country comparison

Welfare Considerations

Benchmarking creates accountability and identifies both high and low performers - the high performers whose practices can be shared, and the low performers whose welfare problems demand intervention. Public availability of farm-level welfare data allows consumers, buyers, and regulators to identify and act on welfare problems. Industry-wide benchmarking is more effective than individual farm assessment alone because it identifies systemic patterns.

What You Can Do

Support organisations advocating for public salmon welfare data reporting
Choose certified salmon from companies that publicly report welfare benchmarking data
Advocate for mandatory welfare benchmarking as part of salmon farm licensing