Animal welfare is a major concern in intensive salmon farming, where high densities, disease, and stress affect fish health. Livestock kept in small numbers between greenhouses in Spain also face risks, often fed discarded crops containing plastics and contaminants, showing that welfare issues span both systems.
Sheep in Almería are often fed plant material and discarded crops, with plastics clearly mixed in and easily consumed
Animal welfare in salmon farming has drawn increasing concern worldwide, with high stocking densities, disease outbreaks, and stressful handling marking many operations. Several major salmon farms, including sites operated by Mowi, Bakkafrost, and Scottish Sea Farms, have faced suspension from the RSPCA Assured certification scheme after undercover footage showed welfare breaches such as fish kept out of water too long and rough handling, raising questions about how meaningful and enforceable voluntary standards are in practice.
Outside aquaculture, small-scale livestock kept between greenhouses in Spain often consume discarded crops as feed. This feed is largely unregulated and can contain plastics and other contaminants, exposing animals to health risks and reflecting how welfare is compromised even in low-intensity systems.
Salmon frequently die during routine treatments such as delicing, where handling, crowding, and chemical exposure place immense stress on the fish. These mortality events are an inherent part of intensive aquaculture, emphasising the 'acceptable' risks built into standard management practices.
Salmon are treated for sea lice, causing mortalities that float on the surface of the pen
In many salmon farms, dead or dying fish are not always removed or euthanised correctly, leaving them to decompose in pens or even shutting living fish into boxes with dead fish. Such practices cause significant suffering and reflect systemic gaps in welfare oversight within intensive aquaculture operations.
Salmon routinely die in pens from stress and disease
Here, salmon still alive were left to asphyxiate alongside dead ones
Salmon are produced at extremely high densities, treated more like items on an assembly line than living creatures. Massive harvesting vessels vacuum up thousands of fish at a time, killing them automatically, raising questions about whether we want to consume animals subjected to such industrial-scale treatment.
A boat harvests salmon by sucking the animals through a tube before being killed
Livestock fed discarded crops may appear to be part of a small-scale, apparently circular system, but they are actually a symptom of a larger, wasteful, profit-driven agri-food model. Using animals to absorb surplus or imperfect produce masks the inefficiencies of industrial food production while exposing the animals to contaminated feed and substandard conditions.
Livestock in Almería surrounded by plant material, waste crops, and greenhose plastic
A farm worker feeding a dead salmon to a seal may appear like a charming encounter with wildlife, but it circumvents regulations designed to protect wild animals from human interference. Instead of supporting natural behaviour, it conditions these animals to depend on industrial food systems, depriving them of a genuine, independent life in the wild.
A salmon farm worker feeds a dead fish to a seal