Seals and sea lions face welfare threats from commercial hunting, bycatch, entanglement, and interactions with fisheries. Their welfare in rehabilitation and wild contexts both matter.
Commercial seal hunts involve rapid killing using hakapiks — when used correctly on fully stunned animals, death is rapid. However, independent veterinary assessments have documented inadequate stunning and live skinning in some hunts, representing severe welfare failures. The scale — hundreds of thousands of pups killed annually — means even low rates of welfare failure produce large absolute numbers of animals suffering. Sea lions shot by fishermen often receive non-lethal wounds that cause prolonged suffering. Mediterranean monk seals entangled in fishing nets drown with the same prolonged suffering as other large marine mammal bycatch. Rehabilitation centres provide excellent care but capacity is chronically insufficient relative to demand from entanglement, plastic ingestion, and disease.