Mass cetacean strandings create acute welfare emergencies requiring coordinated response to minimize suffering and maximize successful returns for animals that can be refloated.
Mass cetacean stranding welfare involves the tension between social bonds that drive animals to refuse rescue and the physical deterioration that makes delay increasingly welfare-harmful. Animals that are alert and physically viable can be refloated and redirected to sea, but social animals may return to strand again following pod members. Welfare priorities during mass strandings involve rapid triage to identify animals with realistic survival prospects, provision of shade, hydration support, and cooling for viable animals while minimizing handling stress, and humane euthanasia for animals with injuries or physiological deterioration incompatible with survival. The scale of these events makes individual animal welfare decisions dependent on triage systems and experienced coordinators.