Coastal intertidal zones host rich communities of crabs, starfish, molluscs, and fish that face welfare harms from recreational and commercial human activities.
Intertidal welfare encompasses a wide range of taxa with varying sentience probabilities. Crabs and lobsters, with their complex nervous systems, have reasonable evidence for pain experience. Molluscs and echinoderms are more uncertain. The welfare principle of minimising unnecessary harm applies regardless of certainty about individual sentience — trampling, extraction, and disturbance cause demonstrable physiological stress responses. Rock pooling education that teaches observation without collection, no-take intertidal marine protected areas, and restrictions on commercial intertidal harvesting in sensitive areas all improve welfare outcomes for these often-overlooked communities.