With the closing of seafood processors and restaurants due to the Covid 19 pandemic, many aquaculture producers pivoted to direct sales and began exploring small-scale processing. As the majority of food fish in California are sold to live markets or delivered to processors, few aquaculture producers in California have experience with fish processing and associated technology available to large seafood processors. Given the many challenges of increasing domestic finfish supply in the west, reducing loss by extending the shelf life and improving the quality of fresh and frozen fish products is critical to maintaining the growth and profitability of the fish producers in the Western Region of the US. Since fish products are highly perishable, it is necessary to reduce the post-harvest waste due to low meat quality of fish products. Stress generated by animals during the slaughtering process may cause abnormal ultimate pH of muscle, resulting in reduced water holding capacity, increased growth rate of microbes that have adverse effects on meat quality, and shortened shelf life of the products. Slaughter methods for salmonids in the Western US-primarily consist of compression, electrical stunning, percussive blunt force trauma for first stage methods followed by exsanguination in an ice slurry as a second stage method. This presentation addresses the immediate needs of small-scale finfish producers and processors by evaluating novel percussive and electrical slaughtering technology advancements to increase fish quality while reducing stress during slaughter.