The life of a farmed fish. Fish are crammed together in small cages, tanks or earth ponds. This causes severe stress to the fish. Wild salmon, for instance, migrate over hundreds of miles from the rivers where they are spawned to the open sea. The frustration of the instinctual migratory behaviour is shown by the fish's continual agitation and leaping.
Many fish die before slaughter from stress or from fighting with other fish.
The competition for food can lead to bullying, tail and fin nipping and even cannibalism. Being so crammed in also means a high level of disease and death. To try to combat disease, fish are injected with antibiotics, treated with pesticides and fungicides and removed from the water a number of times. Before slaughter fish are starved for two weeks and then hit on the head or placed in a tank with carbon dioxide gas bubbled through. They are then bled to death.