Whales face multiple human-caused welfare threats including entanglement in fishing gear, noise pollution from shipping and sonar, and ship strikes. Their welfare as highly intelligent, long-lived animals is significant.
Entangled whales experience prolonged, severe welfare harm. Fishing rope wrapped around flippers, around the body, or through the mouth causes lacerations that worsen over time as whales struggle. Some entangled whales carry ropes for years before dying — representing months to years of continuous pain and restricted movement. Military sonar causes physiological damage to ears, leading to disorientation and strandings where whales die from dehydration, collapse under their own weight, and thermoregulation failure. Ship strikes cause traumatic injuries — propeller lacerations — that whales survive for days before dying. Each of these harms affects individuals with complex social bonds, long memories, and what appears to be a rich emotional life.