Hundreds of thousands of dolphins and small cetaceans are killed or injured as bycatch in global fisheries every year. This represents one of the largest sources of human-caused cetacean mortality and suffering.
Dolphin bycatch is a massive, largely invisible welfare crisis. The drowning experience of a trapped dolphin involves conscious awareness of inability to breathe, increasing panic, and progressive hypoxia — a prolonged and distressing death. Social species such as dolphins may also experience anticipatory fear when netted alongside conspecifics. Injured dolphins that escape with fishing gear embedded in their bodies suffer from chronic entanglement wounds, infection, and restricted movement. At population level, bycatch mortality is pushing several small cetacean populations toward local extinction, threatening the long-term welfare of entire communities of socially bonded animals. Consumer choices around seafood and advocacy for fisheries reform are the primary levers for change.