Tilapia is the world's most widely farmed fish species, yet almost no welfare standards exist for its production despite evidence that tilapia experience pain and stress.
Tilapia represents an under-scrutinized welfare problem given its enormous global production volume. These are cichlid fish with well-documented social complexity, individual recognition and sophisticated behavioral repertoires whose welfare needs are almost entirely ignored in commercial production. The welfare science developed for salmon and trout has not been systematically applied to tilapia, and certification schemes that include welfare criteria for some species typically do not cover tilapia production. As global tilapia production continues to expand, developing welfare standards based on existing fish welfare science and applying them to tilapia production represents an urgent but achievable welfare improvement.