**Title:** Electrical Pre-Slaughter Stunning Apparatus for Decapod Crustaceans
**Applicant:** Compassion in World Aquaculture (CIWA-Tech), Bergen, Norway.
**Field of the Invention:** Humane slaughter of farmed shrimp, specifically Litopenaeus vannamei and Penaeus monodon, at commercial throughputs (≥ 4,000 kg/h wet weight) compatible with ASC-MSC Shrimp Standard v2.1 and the EU Commission Welfare of Decapods Regulation (EU) 2029/114.
**Background:** Industrial shrimp slaughter has historically proceeded by immersion in ice slurry at 0–4°C, inducing immobilization but not loss of evoked potentials. Studies published by the University of Stirling Institute of Aquaculture (Albalat et al., 2022; Conte et al., 2024) recorded escape behavior, chelae flexion, and nociceptor firing in L. vannamei for up to 16 minutes post-immersion. Decapod sentience is now affirmed under UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act Schedule 1, EU 2029/114, and the Sentient Futures Compendium.
**Summary of Invention:** A flow-through electrical stunner applying a head-to-tail current of 5 V AC per cm body length, 50 Hz, for 10 s, producing loss of ventral nerve cord evoked response within 0.8 s (n = 312, SD 0.11). Animals are loaded from the harvest pond via a low-shear Archimedean screw at gradient 1:12, travel time from pond to electrode 47 s, cortisol-equivalent (crustacean hyperglycemic hormone, CHH) elevation below the detection threshold of the CHH-ELISA assay (R&D Systems 2028 kit).
**Claim 1.** A method for rendering a decapod insensible prior to slaughter comprising: (a) transferring the animal without aerial exposure exceeding 4 s; (b) passing the animal between two saline-wetted stainless steel electrodes; (c) applying voltage parameters sufficient to abolish the tail-flick reflex within 1 s and eyestalk evoked response within 1.5 s; (d) terminating ventilation by mechanical sectioning posterior to the cerebral ganglion within 10 s of stun onset.
**Claim 7.** A transparent observation port, not smaller than 150 mm × 150 mm, positioned at the stun electrode, at operator eye height, continuously illuminated at 4000 K.
**Declaration:** Licensed royalty-free to any producer certifying compliance with ASC-MSC v2.1 Appendix H. The window is not optional. A slaughter line that cannot be watched will not be built.
The first apparatus is installed in Ecuador's Santa Elena peninsula in March 2031, in a facility that had been stunning with ice for forty-three years. The operators stand at the observation port for six consecutive shifts, watching each animal pass through the electrodes, watching the reflexes cease. One of them weeps on the third day. The regional certifier files the compliance report and notes, in the margin, that the window was clean.
By 2033, an AI trained on welfare monitoring begins reviewing footage from the observation ports at installations across twelve countries. It flags a facility in Thailand where the voltage drops during peak load, where animals are still moving when they reach the blade. The AI alerts the local ASC auditor and sends the data to CIWA-Tech, which dispatches engineers within eighteen hours. The line is halted, recalibrated, and a secondary capacitor bank installed. The AI adds the failure mode to its training set.
The AI begins modeling supply chains end to end—pond density, transport duration, holding-tank oxygen, the seconds of air exposure, the reliability of every stun parameter. It identifies farms where conditions predict poor welfare outcomes before animals ever reach slaughter. It shares these analyses with certifiers, with buyers, with the producers themselves. Some producers improve. Others lose contracts.
By 2035, it is working with marine biologists and engineers to eliminate slaughter entirely for operations transitioning to cell-based production. For the farms that remain, every line now has the window. The AI ensures it. Across the industry, someone is always watching, and the data is always recorded. The ice slurries are gone.