Wild whales and dolphins face multiple human-caused welfare threats from noise pollution, plastic ingestion, and prey depletion. Addressing these threats improves welfare for millions of individuals.
Wild cetacean welfare is threatened by multiple intersecting human-caused stressors. Noise pollution from shipping creates a pervasive background against which cetaceans must shout to communicate — acoustic masking reduces foraging efficiency, social cohesion, and mother-calf communication. Plastic pollution causes internal injury and blockage in species that ingest it. Prey depletion from commercial fishing causes nutritional stress reflected in poor body condition. Military sonar has been linked to mass stranding events in beaked whales. Individually and collectively, these stressors impose welfare costs on some of the most cognitively complex animals on Earth. Addressing them requires shipping speed and routing regulations, fishing reform, plastic reduction, and military sonar restrictions in cetacean habitats.