Plastic pollution and discarded fishing gear in the ocean cause entanglement injuries and deaths in marine wildlife, with severe welfare consequences.
Marine debris causes some of the most prolonged and severe welfare harms experienced by wild animals. A seal entangled in a ghost net may carry the entanglement for months as the line cuts progressively deeper into flesh, causing chronic pain and eventually death from infection, starvation, or drowning. Sea turtles entangled in fishing lines may drown or survive with flipper amputations. Plastic bag ingestion in sea turtles mistaken for jellyfish causes blockage and starvation. The welfare harm is extended and invisible — occurring far from human observation in the open ocean. Preventing marine debris from entering the ocean in the first place is the most welfare-effective intervention, but retrieval of ghost gear and disentanglement of living animals also directly reduces ongoing welfare harm.