Over 100 billion farmed fish are slaughtered each year. At Coefficient Giving, where I (Michelle Lavery) work as a Senior Program Associate, we estimate that only ~0.5% of them are reliably stunned before slaughter.
For the more than a trillion wild-caught fish killed annually, conditions are even worse: most are left to suffocate slowly in air or in low-oxygen water, a process that can take minutes to hours.
Though fish slaughter represents only a few hours in an animal's life, we believe the pain it causes is excruciating — especially when done poorly, which is most of the time. This problem is both urgent and tractable: the suffering is immense, the moment of slaughter is discrete and identifiable, and people are genuinely horrified when they learn about current practices. So why hasn't it been solved? The answer lies in a combination of technical complexity, limited competition in the equipment market, and a critical skills gap between the biologists who study the problem and the engineers who could solve it.
That's why we're launching this RFP: to bridge that gap and catalyze the engineering innovation this problem demands.
Why this is hard
If you've never thought about how fish are killed at industrial scale, you might assume the problem is straightforward: just stun them before slaughter, the way we do with cattle or pigs. But fish present unique engineering challenges that make solutions far more complex than they first appear.
The diversity of fish species creates fundamental design challenges. Consider percussive stunning — delivering a precise blow to the head to instantly render the animal insensible. This works well for salmon, but fish skulls vary dramatically: some are thick and bony, others thin and cartilaginous. Some species have differently shaped heads that make accurate strikes difficult. A device calibrated for salmon anatomy might deliver glancing blows to sea bass, leaving them conscious and in pain.
Even methods that seem promising have hidden failure modes. Take electrical stunning: its effectiveness depends on fish size, orientation in the water or on a conveyor belt, electrode spacing, and water conductivity, among other things. In practice, some individuals in a batch receive sub-threshold electrical fields — they appear immobilized but remain conscious. Recent studies have revealed another problem: for several commercially important species, the duration of unconsciousness from electrical stunning is shorter than previously thought. Fish may appear stunned but regain consciousness during the killing process.
And then there are operational constraints. Wild-caught fish are processed on seagoing vessels with limited power and space. Farmed fish are killed in marine cages or freshwater systems with different environmental conditions. Small fish caught in enormous quantities need different solutions than large, individually handled fish. Equipment must handle near-continuous throughput without disrupting processing lines, remain safe for workers, and be maintainable in harsh conditions.
These problems require expertise in electrical systems, mechanical design, sensor technology, process engineering, and more. We fund many biologists who are excellent at identifying when and why interventions fail. Now, we're hoping to fund engineers who can solve those failures.
Who/what we're looking for
We're seeking proposals for technologies and prototypes that materially improve fish welfare at capture and slaughter. We're particularly interested in:
- Practical solutions for fishing vessels with limited power and space
- Methods that work for small wild fish caught in large quantities (currently no humane options exist)
- Alternatives to or improvements upon electrical stunning for farmed fish
- Outside-the-box approaches we haven't considered
You don't need to be a fish welfare expert to apply. We're targeting electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, maritime engineers, process engineers, and interdisciplinary teams who can bring fresh thinking to these problems. We've prepared technical context to help you understand the current state of the field, and we've created an evaluation rubric that explains how we'll assess proposals.
We want to see projects with a plausible path to commercial adoption. Early-stage “crazy” ideas are welcome, as long as they’re grounded in feasible near-term innovation. We want to see how your solution could realistically be integrated into existing fishing or aquaculture operations.
How to apply
Applications remain open until July 1, 2026. Start by submitting a 2,500–3,000-word Letter of Intent covering your approach, research plans, organizational structure, timeline, and budget.
We're offering a $4,000 honorarium to applicants whose submissions meet a minimum standard or rank among the top 125, whichever comes first. From this group, we'll invite 5–30 candidates to submit full proposals by September 30, 2026, with funding decisions expected before year-end. We expect to allocate approximately $7 million to the most promising projects, with additional funding available for exceptional proposals. (Honorarium payments are subject to eligibility under applicable law and completion of any required due diligence/compliance screening.)
We welcome applications from:
- Academic and industry researchers
- Engineers and technologists from any sector
- Startups and nonprofits
- Interdisciplinary teams
Whether you're an expert in aquaculture technology or an engineer from a completely different field who sees a novel solution, we encourage you to apply: https://coefficientgiving.org/funds/farm-animal-welfare/request-for-proposals-humane-fish-slaughter-research-prototypes.
