Marine debris — particularly plastic — entangles and injures millions of marine animals annually, causing chronic suffering and death that is preventable through waste reduction and removal.
Marine debris entanglement causes profound welfare suffering to individual animals — sea turtles with plastic bands cutting into growing bodies, seals with net loops embedded in necks, whales dragging hundreds of metres of rope — that is both chronic and largely invisible to the public. Each entangled animal may suffer for weeks or months before death or rescue. The welfare case for marine plastic reduction therefore extends beyond the ecological to the individual: preventing plastic from entering the ocean prevents identifiable suffering in specific animals. Ghost fishing gear is particularly harmful because it continues actively catching animals long after loss. Rescue and disentanglement operations are welfare-positive and high-profile but can address only a tiny fraction of entangled animals. Prevention — reducing plastic pollution at source — is the only scalable solution.