One of the world’s leading organizations for farmed seafood is to introduce new welfare rules after accepting fish can feel “pain, stress and anxiety”.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which oversees a global certification scheme for farmed fish, is consulting on new draft welfare standards, including more humane slaughter practices. The ASC provides certification labelling for British supermarket fish, from sea bass to smoked salmon.
Under the proposals, farmed fish with the ASC label will need to be stunned before being killed. It says under current standards fish may be slaughtered by asphyxia or evisceration. The global production of farmed seafood (excluding algae) is predicted to overtake wild fish by 2030…