Marine heatwaves caused by climate change are bleaching coral reefs, killing kelp forests, and disrupting food chains across the world's oceans, causing welfare harm at enormous scale.
Marine heatwaves cause mass individual animal suffering alongside ecosystem collapse. Coral bleaching stresses and kills corals; fish and invertebrates that depend on them lose habitat and food. Kelp forest collapse removes refuge and food for hundreds of species. Stranded marine mammals during heatwaves suffer dehydration, heat stress, and starvation. The welfare scale of marine ecosystem degradation from climate change is unprecedented in human history and is directly linked to fossil fuel emissions and warming oceans.