Livestock farming is a major driver of water pollution and depletion, affecting aquatic animal welfare through habitat destruction, runoff contamination, and excessive water abstraction.
Water system welfare impacts from animal agriculture create vast suffering in aquatic animals at landscape scale. Hypoxic zones created by nutrient runoff from livestock operations cause fish, crustaceans, and invertebrates to suffocate — or flee available habitat at the cost of energy and stress. Harmful algal blooms caused by agricultural runoff produce toxins that kill fish, marine mammals, and birds. Chronic low-level antibiotic contamination of waterways affects aquatic invertebrate populations and ecological food webs. These harms affect wild animals in rivers and coastal waters far removed from farms, making the welfare footprint of animal agriculture much larger than the farm boundary alone. Dietary shifts reducing livestock production are among the most impactful actions individuals can take for aquatic animal welfare.