River dolphins inhabit some of the most heavily impacted freshwater ecosystems on Earth, facing bycatch, boat strikes, pollution, and habitat degradation that compromise both survival and welfare.
River dolphins experience welfare harms from multiple anthropogenic stressors simultaneously. Gillnet entanglement causes drowning — a prolonged, terrifying death. Boat propeller strikes cause severe lacerations. Heavy metal pollution (mercury from gold mining in Amazonia) bioaccumulates in tissues, causing neurological and reproductive harm. Noise pollution from outboard motors disrupts the echolocation these animals depend on for foraging, socialising, and navigation. Social species like the boto experience isolation stress when populations become fragmented. Injured or malnourished dolphins face prolonged suffering before death. The Ganges river dolphin is listed as Endangered, and without urgent intervention, several species face the welfare catastrophe of extinction-level population collapse.