Chemicals that mimic or interfere with hormones enter waterways through agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and industrial processes, causing reproductive and developmental harm to aquatic animals.
Endocrine disruption causes welfare harm through reproductive failure, developmental abnormalities, immune suppression, and altered behaviour. Affected animals may fail to attract mates, experience miscarriage, produce offspring with severe developmental defects, or show abnormal stress responses. Because these chemicals act at extremely low concentrations and their effects emerge gradually across the lifespan and generations, the welfare burden is often invisible until population-level consequences become apparent.