Oil spills cause catastrophic welfare harm to seabirds through feather oiling, hypothermia, and toxic ingestion. Rapid response and rehabilitation save lives but prevention remains the priority.
Oil spills cause some of the most acutely distressing welfare events in wildlife: seabirds that cannot float, cannot thermoregulate, and actively make their situation worse through preening that spreads oil ingestion. The suffering of a large oiled seabird mortality event is both individually severe for each bird and collectively enormous in scale. Rehabilitation of oiled seabirds is welfare-positive where survival rates justify the intervention, and builds the institutional capacity and public awareness needed for prevention advocacy. The most effective welfare intervention remains prevention: stronger shipping regulations, better spill response infrastructure, and reducing dependence on fossil fuel transport all reduce the probability of future welfare catastrophes.