Salmon Welfare Scorecard

Measuring Welfare in Salmon Farming

Welcome to our Salmon Welfare Scorecard—a powerful tool designed to encourage salmon producers to improve their welfare practices through transparent, objective evaluation.

This Scorecard benchmarks salmon welfare across the industry, assessing the public policies of leading producers against key welfare criteria using publicly available information. These criteria include stocking density, humane slaughter practices, sea lice management, and mortality rates.

Each welfare parameter is scored independently, with results presented on a 5-color scale, providing a clear, visual benchmark of welfare standards.

The Salmon Welfare Scorecard not only raises awareness and transparency but also drives investment in higher welfare practices.

By providing an authoritative basis for reporting and rewarding responsible policies, it enables producers—and the retailers they supply—to make measurable improvements in farmed salmon welfare.

Salmon Welfare Scorecard 2023

The 2023 Scorecard evaluated the performance of eight salmon producers (AquaChile, Bakkafrost, Cermaq, Cooke, Grieg Seafood, Leroy, Mowi, Salmar), which together represent more than 50% of worldwide salmon production.

Key Findings

• MOWI and CERMAQ attained good scores for the Key Welfare Indicator section and for their policies on humane slaughter. These are two essential aspects of salmon welfare, and it is good to see these producers performing well in these areas.
• Only one producer, Bakkafrost, scored well for predator management. This is an important issue, as predators can cause significant stress and injury to farmed salmon. It is encouraging to see that Bakkafrost is taking this issue seriously, and we hope that other producers will follow their lead.
• There is a general trend for poor reporting around transfer and transport, stocking density, enclosure, humane slaughter, and sea lice. These are all important welfare issues, and it is essential that producers are transparent about their policies and practices in these areas.

All the producers included in the 2023 Scorecard were consulted about the original findings in March 2023 and had the opportunity to improve their scores by updating any publicly available information prior to publication. They were also offered private, dedicated meetings with Compassion’s Food Business team to discuss how to make welfare improvements.

Learn more

To learn more about the Salmon Welfare Scorecard and how to improve your salmon welfare policy, please contact us, and explore our fish welfare resources.