Blue whales — the largest animals ever to have lived — face the combined pressures of climate change, ship strikes, and noise pollution that impose welfare costs at the individual and population level.
Blue whale welfare exists at the intersection of climate and conservation: whale communication over hundreds of kilometres — fundamental to social coordination and reproduction — is disrupted by shipping noise. Krill distribution shifts driven by warming force whales into nutritional stress. Ship strikes cause traumatic injury and death. The welfare of individually long-lived, cognitively complex animals experiencing these persistent stressors is diminished in ways that are invisible but real. Climate action is directly a blue whale welfare intervention.